System and method for infrasonic cardiac monitoring

ABSTRACT

Cardiac Output (CO) has traditionally been difficult, dangerous, and expensive to obtain. Surrogate measures such as pulse rate and blood pressure have therefore been used to permit an estimate of CO. MEMS technology, evolutionary computation, and time-frequency signal analysis techniques provide a technology to non-invasively estimate CO, based on precordial (chest wall) motions. The technology detects a ventricular contraction time point, and stroke volume, from chest wall motion measurements. As CO is the product of heart rate and stroke volume, these algorithms permit continuous, beat to beat CO assessment. Nontraditional Wavelet analysis can be used to extract features from chest acceleration. A learning tool is preferable to define the packets which best correlate to contraction time and stroke volume.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a Non-provisional of, and claims priorityunder 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) from, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.62/175,686, filed Jun. 15, 2015, the entirety of which is expresslyincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present application incorporates the following material byreference, in its entirety: Ohad BarSimanTov, Ph.D. Dissertation,Binghamton University (2014, embargoed).

Cardiac Output (CO) is the one of the most important measurements forassessing human health. CO refers to the volume (in liters) of bloodpumped out by the left ventricle to the body per minute. Unfortunately,the lack of accuracy and difficultly of measuring this parameter in theprimary care and home care environments has drastically limited its use.As a result, other more readily obtained assessments are commonly usedto provide an estimation of CO, for example, heart rate, respiratoryrate, blood pressure, body temperature (i.e., the vital signs).

A vital signs assessment of an individual's health is undertaken duringany hospital admission, any doctor visit, by a medic, or at the start ofalmost any healthcare intervention. The reason for this assessment is tocheck how well the vital organs of the body, lungs, heart, etc., areworking, and thereby identify any early signs of illness. There are fourVital Signs commonly used to quickly assess the health status of anindividual [1]; pulse rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, and bodytemperature. The pulse rate also is called heart rate, which is thenumber of heart beats per minute. Heart Rate (HR) can readily bemeasured by sensing the pulsations in an artery. Blood pressure istypically measured at the arteries of the arm and represents the drivingforce of blood through the arterial system. The systolic pressure is thehigh pressure value, and indicates the heart's contraction force. Thediastolic pressure is lower pressure value and happens during therelaxation phase of the heart. The blood pressure and pulse rateprovides only a very crude estimate of Cardiac Output (CO). CardiacOutput is commonly compared to the person's body surface areas (BSA)which can be obtained through the person's height and weight. CardiacIndex (CI) is the ratio of CO to BSA and is relatively constant acrossthe population in healthy individuals, though it decays with increasingage. The third vital sign is breathing rate and is obtained by countingthe number of times the person's chest rises and falls in one minute.Usually, a physician will pay attention to abnormal sounds duringrespiration, which can provide information about the person'srespiratory condition. The last vital sign is the body temperature,which provides a measure of the individuals' thermo-regulatory status, acritical aspect of health in a homoeothermic organism.

Introduction of a dye into the blood stream provides one method tomeasure CO. The Fick method uses two catheters to extract blood samplesfrom the pulmonary artery and from the aorta and measure the oxygenlevels in both. The dye dilution uses a single catheter to extract bloodsamples from the aorta after the dye was injected in the medianantecubital vein. Around 1960s, the dye dilution came to be viewed asthe most accurate technique to measure CO. In 1970s the pulmonary arterycatheter (PAC) was introduced and became the ‘gold standard’ apparatusas it could be used in both dye-dilution and thermo-dilution methods,which involves just one catheter to inject a solution to the rightatrium and measure its change in the pulmonary artery. Since then,invasive techniques using PAC, and other arterial catheters, are widelyused in hospital settings. However, these invasive methods andtechniques introduce significant risk of deleterious complications suchas bleeding, pneumothorax, and infection and widespread use of thesedevices is falling out of favor. Therefore, non-invasive CO monitoringmeasurements are preferred by physicians and patients.

Numerous non-invasive cardiac monitoring technology have been developedover the years to address the need for non-invasive cardiac monitoring,including Electrocardiogram (ECG), Computed Tomography (CT), MagneticResonance Imaging, Doppler Ultrasound, Echocardiogram, andBio-impedance. All of these improve patient safety and significantlyreduce complications. Some of them also dramatically reduce the cost ofcardiac monitoring. ECG does not provide any specific information aboutthe mechanical activity (i.e. pumping activity) of the heart, only theelectrical activity. Similarly, CT and MRI provide only static images ofthe heart. Doppler Ultrasound and Bioimpedance provide estimates of thevolume of blood ejected by the heart during each contraction, which whenmultiplied by heart rate, provides an estimate of CO.

The total volume of blood that the heart pumps during each contractionis referred to as the stroke volume. Cardiac output (CO) is simply theproduct of the heart rate and stroke volume. Stroke volume depends onatrial filling pressure, the end diastolic pressure in the ventricle(backpressure), and the contractility of the ventricle. Typically, ahealthy cardiac muscle will eject between 55% and 70% of the ventricularvolume, or approximately 70 ml [23]. As the cardiovascular system is aclosed system, the right ventricle volume and ejection fraction roughlyequal to those on the left ventricle at any given point in time. Acomplete cardiac cycle occurs during each heartbeat, both atriasimultaneously contract followed by contraction of the ventricles [24].During contraction, the blood pressure in the left ventricle variesrapidly from about 80 mmHg (typical diastolic pressure) to about 120mmHg (typical systolic pressure). The right ventricle pressures are muchlower, ranging from 2 mmHg to 30 mmHg. As all tissues are criticallydependent on adequate blood perfusion to maintain normal function, ameasure of cardiac output can provide important information regardingthe cause of any tissue or organ system failure. Based on anindividual's gender, age, and training levels, HR and SV differ, but theheart supplies the needed amount of blood to the entire body byregulating these two factors. If one component is lower the other adaptsto a higher level during either rest or exercise. Because HR can varyover a range of 2-3 fold, and SV can vary over a range of 2-3 fold, theheart has the capability to increase its output by up to roughlytenfold. The ability to attain this full operating range is the essenceof athletic training, therefore, accurate, non-invasive, continuous COmonitoring has major applications not just in the healthcare domain, butalso in the athletic domain.

The heart generates sounds during each cardiac cycle due to the flow ofblood through the heart; four heart sounds are commonly defined. Thefirst two, S1 and S2, are normal and associated with the closing of themitral and tricuspid valves and the aortic and pulmonary valves duringthe beginning of systolic and diastolic phases respectively [37]. Theseheart sounds can provide a basis for synchronization of heartcontraction timing. The third and the fourth heart sounds, S3 and S4,may be normal or abnormal and are the result of turbulent flow throughthe values, or regurgitation back through valve. These latter heartsounds are often referred to as murmurs.

Following the ECG P wave, contraction of the atria is associated withleft ventricular volume increase and small left ventricle and leftatrium pressure increase. Following The ECG QRS complex the ventriclescontract and the left ventricle pressure increases rapidly. This causesthe closing of the tricuspid valve, which produces the first heartsound, representing the beginning of the systolic phase. The leftventricle pressure continues to increase and the aorta semilunar valveopens when the left ventricle pressure exceeds the aorta pressure. As aresult, the aortic pressure is increased and the left ventricle volumedecreases. The blood from the left ventricle is expelled into the aortauntil the relaxation phase begins. At this stage, the aortic valvecloses and produces the second heart sound which is the end of thesystole phase and the beginning for the diastole phase. The leftventricle continues to relax, and then the tricuspid valve opens andoxygenated blood enters to the left ventricle. These flows andvolumetric changes produce forces, and motions of the chest wall, whichhave physiological correlates.

In the 19 century it was first proposed that measurements of chest wallmovement during cardiac muscle contraction could serve as a usefulmeasure of stroke volume. Many techniques and methods have beendeveloped to capture cardiac activity non-invasively using sensingtechniques, including Sphygmography, Apex-cardiogram, Mechanocardiogram,Vibrocardiogram, accelerocardiogram, Cardiokymogram, Ballistocardiogram,Kinetocardiogram, Seismocardiogram, and other related methods wereintroduced to measure cardiac activity from body and/or chest motion.All of these methods measure a mechanical motion below 20 Hz, which isat or below the audible range of human hearing. Acoustic signals belowthe range of human hearing are referred to as infrasonic [64].

The Vibrocardiogram (VbCG) provides for measurement of the phases ofisometric contraction, ejection, systole and diastole obtained from theprecordial vibration tracing, with an accuracy as good as that realizedwith direct cardiac catheterization [79, 80]. Those recordings permitthe total energy spectrum of the heart in a displacement form, like theACG. However, the VbCG signal, is obtained using a microphone, whichprovides a measure of the velocity of the chest motion. If this signalis integrated, it provides the displacement of the chest wall. The VbCGwaveform typically consists of four main deflections [79]. The segmentbetween J2 and L is considered to be the ejection time (ET) and theisometric contraction time (ICT) is considered to be between R left andJ2. However, in later studies it has been found that the isometriccontraction is happening after the ECG R way. The comparison between thedye dilution and VbCG has been explored and a good correlation of theejection time has been found (r=0.9). Also, an estimation of cardiacoutput has been shown to be possible [81].

The recording location of the VbCG is defined as the area between the4th to the 5th left intercostal spaces near the sternum, similarly toACG, accelerocardiogram [82], and Cardiokymography (CKG) [84]. Theinvestigation of heart diseases using these methods has also beendescribed [81, 83]. VbCG and Accelerocardiogram record the accelerationof the chest wall at the apex location (behind the fifth leftintercostal space, 8 to 9 cm from the mid-sternal line, slightly medialto the midclavicular line.) ACG and CKG record the displacement of thechest wall at the apex location. These four methods require breathholding while the subject is lying down. Moreover, the signal varies dueto the position of the transducer on the chest, though traditionally thesensor is located exclusively at the apex, and the interpretation of thesignal at other locations is not generally interpreted. Some of therecent publications have used optical sensing devices to measure cardiacactivities [85, 86] and some investigators have concluded that thesetechniques have the capability and certain advantages for long termcardiac monitoring [87].

An alternative method of recording precordial (the region of the chestover the heart) movements is the Kinetocardiogram (KCG) [103, 104, 105].Like the ACG and BCG, KCG records the displacement of a human body as aresult of cardiac activity. This method was very similar to ACG, but therecordings were taken at specific known locations on the chest like theV1-V6 in ECG, and included the apex location. The recordings utilize asensitive piezoelectric transducer (accelerometer) during the end ofnormal expiration [103]. The recordings demonstrate a range of motionover the chest of about two hundred microns.

Seismocardiogram (SCG) is a similar method which records theacceleration of the chest wall; however, the recording location is atthe sternum, similarly to one of the KCG recording locations. SCG wasfirst described in 1961 [107]. In 1990 SCG recordings were performedusing an accelerometer and microprocessor based signal analysis device[108]. The frequency range of the SCG signal was found to be 0.3 to 50Hertz [108]. Moreover, this method has been investigated and compared toleft ventricular function [109] and the relationship between SCG andEchocardiogram [110].

The idea of integrating a portable Seismocardiography signal to measureCO has therefore existed for quite some time [115, 116, 117]. However,it is not fully developed.

There are many mathematical tools used to analyze a signal in thefrequency domain. The traditional Fourier and Laplace methods work wellin smooth continuous signals, for which the statistics properties do notvary in time (i.e. the signals are stationary). They are widely used inscience and engineering and suitable when the recorded signal isstationary. The basis functions, however, are sine and cosine functions,which extend over infinite time intervals and are therefore not suitedfor non-stationary signals [122]. Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT),which is used to analyze small segments of a signal, is more suitablefor non-stationary signals if the statistical properties of the signalvary slowly relative to the dominant frequency of the signal. In thecontext of infrasonic vibrations associated with heart activity, thereceived signal consists of many frequencies which are very close tofrequency of variation (˜1 Hz, i.e. the heart rate frequency) and is notsuitable for the use of STFT. Wavelet analysis is a tool which can beused to extract spectral information where ST Fourier methods fail[124]. Wavelet analysis transforms signals into a two dimensionaltime-frequency domain, utilizing a series of convolution operations onthe signal against particular filters at various positions and timescales. This process not only separates high frequency component fromlow frequency components, but as well, the wavelet scaling processallows one to look at a signal within a small window, and notice thetime location of small and high frequency features. In addition, noisescan be subtracted fairly easily from the recorded signal, which makesthis tool very powerful in many applications: data compression, signaland image processing, music analysis, speech discrimination, quantumphysics, optics, earthquake-prediction, radar, human vision, seismicgeology, and more. The mathematical proof of the transformations isprovided in the papers [124-126].

Wavelet analysis typically consists of three major stages. The first isdecomposition, which separates the signal's high frequency componentsfrom the low frequency components. This process continues recursivelythrough different stages and provides signal analysis while convolvingthe signal with high pass and low pass filters. Based on the “cost” ofeach decomposition level the efficiency of the analysis is calculated toensure the desired information is extracted from the signal. The secondstage is called threshold, where each of the decomposed segments, calledpackets, is processed via mathematical computations. The last stage issignal reconstruction, which collects the packets and reconstructs thedesired signal. This three step process is very common in datacompression, and image processing.

The set of high pass and low pass filters are scaled functions of theMother Wavelet. A Mother Wavelet is a wavelet prototype function whichis adapted (scaled and shifted) during the procedure of waveletanalysis. The analysis is performed with a high pass filter and a lowpass filter using the Mother Wavelet coefficients. Different Motherwavelets will produce different outputs and different signal information[126]. Therefore, a more suitable mother wavelet function will providebetter information extraction and better noise reduction from theoriginal signal.

The original signal can be reconstructed using all scalings and detailsof the decomposed signal with knowledge of the decomposed motherwavelet. Wavelet decomposition separates the signal to details g[n] andscaling h[n] coefficients with the scaling and details decimated byfactors of two. Each level of decomposition can be obtained from thescaling factor and separated into scaling and details again. Similarly,the reconstruction process can use the scaling and detail packets toreconstruct the previous decomposition level packets until the originalis reconstructed. The scaling h[n] and detail g[n] are convolved withthe Mother wavelet until the original signal is reconstructed.

Wavelet analysis has become one of the most commonly used digital signalprocessing tools, with applications in data compression, imageprocessing, time series data filtering, material detection andde-noising [125, 189]. Over the past two decades, the use of waveletanalysis has increased rapidly in the biomedical field with analysesbeing applied to remove base line variation and high frequencycomponents from the electrocardiogram (ECG) and to distinguish specificfeatures within the ECG waveform [153, 154]. Wavelets have also beenused in analysis of electromyograms (EMG) [155, 156], mechanomyograms(MMG) [157], electroencephalograms (EEG) [158, 159], seismocardiograms[115], and other medical applications. Wavelet analysis is widely usedto de-noise data and to separate observed components wheredecomposition, thresh-holding, and reconstruction are computed. Ofcourse, physiological recordings are not signals (i.e. messages) per se.In communication systems, the original transmitted message is known andcan be compared to the received signal; physiologic recordings can onlybe interpreted based on a set of assumptions regarding the performanceof the physiologic system, rather than comparing to a-priori signal.Accordingly, the appropriate processing algorithm must be identified bycorrelating the output produced by various analyses to some systemcharacteristic of interest.

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The Mother Wavelet function is often selected based on the shape andcharacteristic of the feature one is trying to extract. Some functionsare better at capturing amplitude and phase changes; others are betterat synthesizing data and quantitative information. Domingues et al.[190] and Chourasia et al. [191] show examples, where selection of aparticular mother wavelet provides better feature extraction thanothers. Rather than accepting such a trade-off by selecting a singlebasis set, it should be possible to combine information from multiplemother wavelets. See, U.S. Pat. No. 8,874,477, expressly incorporatedherein by reference.

If one has inadequate a-priori understanding of the characteristicswhich need to be extracted for a particular application there may beadvantages in performing multiple full tree decompositions usingmultiple mother wavelets, and then recombining specific packets tocreate a hybrid. While encouraging in principle, this approach soonfaces the curse of dimensionality; the number of combinations increasesfactorially. Genetic Algorithms (GAs) have some ability to deal withcombinational exploration, so this approach was explored.

Genetic Algorithms (GAs) and Wavelets have been combined recently inimage processing for fault detection [160, 161], voice recognition[162], and other applications [163, 164], but these investigations useda binary encoding for packet selection. Previous investigations [149]imply that a better approach is to incorporate an index representation(genes are the indexes of the features to select from a possibly largepool of features), with a special subset selection crossover operator.This approach has been used in medical imaging, and also genomic andproteomic data mining [165, 166, 167], but not generally applied in timeseries data processing. In this case multiple filter banks from multiplemother wavelets were employed. Each mother wavelet was used to decomposedata to provide a set of filter banks, also known as packets and then aGA was used to evaluate a subset of the filters specified in eachchromosome (FIG. 1).

There are many types of Evolutionary Computations (EC). Each hasstrengths and weaknesses. Darwin's theorem influenced all of them. Abrief introduction and history to GAs is provided and explains thedifferences between GA and other numerical methods. The no free lunch[138] theorem states there is not a universal algorithm to derive theglobal optimal solutions for all problems. Therefore, only a few ECs areinvestigated and explained in detail.

Evolutionary computation is a research domain, where computer algorithmsare inspired by principles of natural evolution. Evolutionarycomputation has sub areas: evolutionary programming, evolutionstrategies, genetic algorithms, and genetic programming. All may becharacterized as non-linear, stochastic search methods based on themechanics of natural selection and natural genetics [138]. Survival ofthe fittest among the entire population provides the step forward tofind the “optimal solution” from one generation to another. The threemain mechanisms that drive evolution forward are reproduction,inheritance with variation, and natural selection. Usually, GAs usecrossover and mutation to explore the landscape. EvolutionaryProgramming (EP) usually uses only mutation and emphasizes the evolutionof behaviors. Evolution Strategies (ES) are based on adaptation andevolution, and traditionally used only mutation for variation. Theselection process is often deterministic and based on fitness rankingand not on the evaluation value. In general, GAs work on a population ofchromosomes. Each chromosome is represented by a string of genes, whereeach gene represents a variable in the evaluated chromosome. Based onchromosomes' evaluations, offspring are produced using crossover andmutation processes.

Evolution Strategies often employ more advanced mutation operators andoften use smaller population sizes than GAs. Their solutionrepresentation and selection operators can be different from GAs. Thebest individuals from the population is allowed to produce offspring,which will represent the next population. The offspring are mutated andevaluated before they become the next generation. In some cases the newoffspring will be combined with the previous population. The generalprinciple of ES is as follows:

t=0 initialize(P(t=0)); evaluate (P(t=0)); while isNotTerminated( ) doP_(p)(t) = selectBest(μ, P(t)); P_(c)(t) = reproduce(λ, P_(p)); mutate(P_(c)(t)); evaluate (P_(c)(t)); if (usePlusstrategy) then P=(t+1) =P_(c)(t) ∪ P(t); else P=(t+1) = P_(c)(t) t=t+1 end

Genetic Programming (GP) is often used to evolve computer programs andsometimes to derive mathematical equations to represent a solution to aproblem. GP is able to model dynamic systems using evolved equationswhich best represent a solution to a system. The problem representationis encoded as a tree structure, where branches are evaluated in aspecific order. Evolutionary programming (EP) is similar to GP, but thestructure of the program is fixed, similar to GA. N numbers of genes canbe represented where in every generation some genes are mutated andrepresent different operations. The data flow is similar to GA, but thenew population is the mutated old population.

The search for an optimal solution is desired in every challenge.Non-linear, stochastic search, based on the mechanics of naturalselection are what characterize Genetic Algorithms [139]. They are aparticular evolutionary algorithm class that uses biology inspiredtechniques such as mutation, selection, inheritance and crossover(recombination). Survival of the fittest among the entire populationwith some mutation provides the step forward towards the optimalsolution from one generation to another. A new set of artificialchromosomes or individuals (population) is created using some or allchromosomes in every generation. Some genes in these chromosomes arecombined with new genes which were not explored before or were inheritedfrom previous generations. This may be considered to correspond, to ason who looks like his father, but yet has minor variations whichdistinguish him and are carried on from previous generations, say hisgrandfather. Genetic Algorithms are randomized yet not simple random.They allow efficient exploitation of historical information combinedwith the new, and performance usually improves across generations.

The search for the best solution may not be possible mathematically and,or may cost unrealistic computation time and effort. There are threemain types of search methods identified by the current literature:calculus-based, enumerative, and stochastic. Calculus-based methods havebeen explored widely and divide to two groups: indirect method, wheresearch for local maxima is by solving a nonlinear set of equationsdirected from the gradient of the objective function, and direct method,where search uses a function likely to move in the direction related ofthe local gradient to find the local optima. The main disadvantage ofcalculus based methods is local scope. The optima they search are thebest in the neighborhood of the current location, but they may notexplore sufficiently; missing sharp events is probable. Based on thestarting point, calculus based methods potentially miss the highest hilland focus on a local hill. In general, enumerative schemes evaluateevery point in the space, one at a time, similarly to a brute forceapproach. This method is applicable when the search space is small, dueto the lack of efficiency in large space problems. As researchersrecognized the effectiveness of stochastic search over calculus-basedand enumerative schemes, it became more popular. However, stochasticmethods can also lack of efficiency in large space problems. Traditionalschemes work well in narrow space problems, but not in broad spectrumproblems.

Genetic algorithms are different in their way of solving a problem fromtraditional methods [139]. First, GAs do not work with the parametersthemselves, but rather the coding of the parameter set. Second, thesearch is done from a population point of view, and not from a singlepoint; multiple searches are performed in parallel. Third, GAs use anevaluation function in the form of payoff, considering the problem as ablack box, and do not use derivatives or mathematical functions.Advantageously, they need make no assumptions of this sort. Fourth, GAsuse probabilistic transition rules and not deterministic rules to directthe search. Considering the black box problem, GAs will select someinputs and acquire the evaluated output. New inputs will be based on theprobability of having better performance from the previous runs'evaluations until a certain degree of satisfaction is achieved.Crossover allows useful combinations to generate better results based onthe previous results. Therefore, genes from the above average ancestorswill be used more frequently, similar to Darwin's evolution scheme.

The initial population is often generated randomly; each individual isgenerated with random genes. Often, the initial population is acombination of two initial populations after evaluating each individual;the best from both are combined into one population. Therefore, theinitial population starts with better individuals, which can aid in thereduction of computation time. In some GAs, not all the individualswithin the population are mated, only the more fit individuals areselected. There can also be different restrictions depending on the GAtype and close “cousins”, very similar individuals, are not allowed tomate. This is called incest prevention [147]. The individuals who mateproduce offspring. These offspring may replace some or all of thepopulation if they are more fit.

Each offspring is evaluated using a fitness function. It is very commonto use fitness proportional reproduction, where each potential parent iscompared to the population average, and this determines the expectednumber of offspring. The best individuals from the population areselected to continue into the next generation, whereas the others leave.

Given a problem with no prior knowledge, the landscape of all possiblesolutions may be defined as a finite space. Wolpert and Macready [138]showed that over the space of all possible search problems, all searchalgorithms have the same average performance. If algorithm A outperformsalgorithm B on some set of problems, on all the other problems, theopposite will be true. In other words, there is no universally superiorsearch algorithm.

In general, as the complexity level increases, a function's ability toprovide a solution to a large problem decreases. Hill Climber (HC)functions are able to solve large problems where the complexity level islow and the landscape is defined with one high peak. At the othercomplexity end, Random Search (RS) and Exhaustive Enumeration (EE) areable to solve any complex problems, where the landscape is very complexwith many peaks, but require small problem size. For intermediate levelsof landscape complexity, algorithms like Iterated Hill Climbers (IHC),genetic algorithms (GA) and simulated annealing (SA) will each have aniche where they are able to solve the largest problems.

If the landscape complexity is unknown, the only way to understand itscomplexity is to perform exploration. For example, when one plays slotmachines and wants to know which machines provides better outcomes;exploration is needed. Playing with each machine provides exploration ofthe landscape. With further exploration, patterns are recognized. Onemachine may provide better outcomes than others. One would like to havea strategy that exploits this emerging discovery. The optimal strategyfor this, “k armed bandits' problem,” is known to allocate trials tomachines in exponential fashion, where the exponent is the estimate ofeach machine's payoff relative to the population average. As a result,some machines will be played more often than others. Furthermore, theprocess is adaptive: one big successful outcome from another machine mayresult in a shift the exploration pattern.

Much work has been done to develop superior algorithms, yet the no freelunch theorem states there is no superior algorithm for all problems.However, based on a specific problem, or class of problems, and knownconditions a good algorithm can be developed and perform better thanothers. Previous work had produced an EC with strong properties forsubset selection tasks of varying complexity [148] It used Eshelman'sCHC algorithm [147]. CHC GA is non-traditional GA, where the offspringreplace inferior parents (cross-generational rank selection). A superiorindividual (chromosome) can survive across generations. Differentcrossovers were investigated by Mathias et al. [148], and Schaffer etal. [149] to provide an effective subset selection GA, and they foundgenetic respect to be the most important characteristic. Respect meansthat genes that are common between parents should be passed on to theoffspring [151]. This concept was tested to learn how much respect issufficient to provide the balance between exploration and exploitation.The final crossover that is used by the algorithm is called the mix andmatch crossover (MMX) SubSet Selection (SSS), where the size of eachchromosome plays a rule in the desired solution.

The initial CHC (Cross generation rank selection, Half uniformcrossover, Cataclysmic mutation) population is generated randomly usinga uniform distribution. In CHC, two initial populations are produced andthe chromosomes are evaluated, and the more fit chromosomes from bothpopulations are selected to become the next population. For allsubsequent generations, the pairs of parents (randomly mated) producetwo offspring and the selection operator produces the next parentgeneration by taking the best from the combined parents and offspringusing simple deterministic ranking. Each parent chromosome has exactlyone mating opportunity each generation, and the resulting offspringreplace inferior parents. Mates are randomly selected, but limited dueto an incest prevention operator applied before the offspringreproduction crossover operator. There is no mutation performed in the“inner loop.” Only when it becomes clear that further crossovers areunlikely to advance the search, a soft restart is performed, usingmutation to introduce substantial new diversity, but also retaining thebest individual chromosome in the population. The responsibility foroffspring production belongs to the crossover operator.

Crossover operator MMX is similar to RRR [147]. The basic MMX employsnegative respect (i.e. no mutations). The MMX_SSS crossover operatorconsists of the MMX_0.85 crossover combined with a Subset Size (SSS)gene [148], which encodes the number of evaluated genes out of the totalnumber of genes included in the chromosome. The parameter (0.85) in theoperator name encodes the extent of negative respect (i.e. 15% mutationsto the parental “unique” genes can occur).

SSS is a secondary mandate to the selection function. It is employedonly if two chromosomes have the same value for classification accuracy(hierarchical selection with a two-dimensional fitness vector); then thesmaller chromosome is ranked more fit. The offspring SSS gene isgenerated using Blend Crossover (BLX) [148, 151]. The SSS gene for eachoffspring is drawn uniformly randomly from an interval defined by theSSS genes in the parents and their fitness, the interval is first set tothat bounded by the parental values, and then extended by in thedirection of the more-fit parent.

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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present technology provides a non-invasive and continuous system andmethod for monitoring of cardiac output from the human being. Thetechnology is based on using high-sensitivity accelerometers to recordchest wall motions. Specific filtering algorithms are utilized toidentify both ventricular contraction time and stroke volume from suchchest wall motions.

Advantageously, the system and method provide usable measurements ofcardiac output for individuals who are upright, during locomotion.Therefore, the techniques are not limited to supine subjects or tosubjects while holding their breath. Thus, this technology may find usein sports monitoring, and ambulatory patient monitoring. Further, thetechnology may be integrated within an implantable medical device(though likely requiring special calibration), and may be used to adjusta pacemaker, for example. In such a device, the cardiac output may beused as a feedback variable, permitting cardiac output to automaticallyrespond to patient need.

In a sports medicine implementation, an athlete may be provided withreal time feedback to optimize performance based on available bloodflow, and perhaps predictive feedback during endurance sports to balanceoxidative and glycolytic metabolism. The feedback may be presentedthrough a watch display, audio feedback, or the like. After a sportingevent or practice, the cardiac output measurements may be compared withathletic performance, to assist the athlete in achieving higher orbetter performance. The monitor can also be used for non competitivesports, and the cardiac output is measured to monitor health andoptimize a workout. For impaired patients, the cardiac output monitormay be provided as an indicator to provide an assessment, and helpdetermine an upper limit on physical exertion.

The technology can be implemented as a low power, portable or wearable,battery operated device. Numerous applications in wellness care, medicalcare, exercise monitoring, sleep monitoring, and sport science areproposed. The technology may also be applicable to veterinary science.

Different investigators have attempted to correlate specific chestacceleration signal components with the heart mechanical activityrelated to valves functions and volume movement. To date, all publishedstudies have focused on analyzing the entire signal, that is, everydetail of the recording throughout the cardiac cycle. Attempting tointerpret all of the detailed information in a chest wall accelerationsignal is problematic due to differences between subjects. However, theinward deviation of the chest wall associated with ventricularcontraction which happens during the first heart sound is an aspect ofthe chest wall acceleration signal which is both uniform and consistent.A specific filter set was developed that is capable of providing anaccurate estimate of stroke volume.

Hardware and signal processing techniques suitable for extracting bothventricular contraction timing and stroke volume estimation in thepresence of breathing and when a person is moving (e.g. exercising) weredeveloped. A 24-bit ADC is used to record chest acceleration where highamplitude impact noise does not saturate the input signal. Stroke volumeand cardiac output estimates obtained using this new technology havebeen compared to simultaneous stroke volume and cardiac outputmeasurements obtained with FDA approved electrical impedance technology(NICOM by Cheetah Medical) and a good correlation to this standardmeasurement technique, of approximately 90%, was demonstrated.

The principle challenges in achieving an accurate and reproducibleestimate of stroke volume from chest wall motion is obtaining accuratetiming of when the ventricle is contracting so that the signal analysisalgorithm can be focused on only the relevant portion of the recordedsignal, and removal of the extraneous noise generated through breathing,internal body organ movements, and whole body motion. The latter threetasks can be accomplished by appropriate filtering. Wavelet packetanalysis is used for extracting information from noise in non-stationarytime series data. A usual approach is to use Wavelet analysis to denoisethe data and to separate observed components which subsequently allowsdecomposition, thresh holding, and reconstruction [176, 190, 191].Moreover, in wavelet analysis, the mother wavelet is typically chosenbased on the experience of the designer, and his sense of the ability ofthe mother wavelet to match certain features of the time series datastream. In some cases, just decomposition (without reconstruction) isperformed to capture the magnitude of some specific feature of thesignal [115].

Rather than a-priori selecting a mother wavelet for analyzing chest wallmotion signals, multiple decompositions were performed based on avariety of different mother wavelets, producing an extremely largenumber of potential filter packets. A unique subset selection geneticalgorithm (SSS-GA) was then used to isolate an optimal filter set thatallows extraction of stroke volume output from acceleration recordingsobtained from the chest wall during exercise using a relatively compactfilter set. Previous investigations [147, 148, 149] demonstrated that apreferred strategy in this approach is to incorporate an indexrepresentation (genes are the indexes of the features to select from apossibly large pool of features), with a special subset selectioncrossover operator. This approach was utilized on the continuousacceleration signal to provide a continuous stroke volume assessment.Previously the SSS-GA algorithm was used with a classifier. However, theSSS-GA algorithm is now used to provide a continuous estimate. Theevaluation function utilizes multiple linear regressions. Thecoefficient of determination is limited to two significant figures inorder to provide sufficient quantization noise to promote algorithmconvergence.

Four healthy men between 22-24 years in age were used as subjects. BMIranged between 21 and 30 Kg/m², and heights ranged from 173 to 188 cm.One subject exercised regularly, while the others did not. Two subjectswere Caucasian, two Asian. Cardiac output was recorded via electricalimpedance spectroscopy (NICOM, Cheetah Medical, Inc.) using fourelectrode sets; two placed on the lower thorax and two on the upperthorax, and was set up to sample stroke volume, heart rate, and cardiacoutput every thirty seconds. Three ECG electrodes were used to obtainthe second ECG lead, with electrodes placed on upper thorax on theright, and two on the lower thorax. Chest accelerations were recorded onthe sternum above the xiphoid using a 2G accelerometer (Silicon DesignsModel 1221), with analog filtering used to capture motion in the 8 Hz to370 Hz to reduce high and low frequencies noises before digitalizing theinput acceleration signal. A BioPack MP-150 data acquisition system wasused to collect and digitalize (at 2000 Hz) the analog data. A twentypole low pass digital filter at 50 Hz was used to isolate thefrequencies between 8 Hz and 50 Hz to focus on the heart frequencyspectrum and remove high frequency components. Following low passfiltering the data were decimated by factor of 20 to set the Nyquistfrequency to 50 Hz.

Measurements were taken while subjects were at rest and during exercise.Data collection was started while the subject was at rest, in supineposition, for 240 seconds, and then upright for 210 seconds. Fiveexercise sessions were started consisting of an exercise period for 150seconds, pedaling at 100 cycles per minute, followed by a 270 secondresting period.

A strap was wrapped around the subject with sufficient force (3N) tohold the accelerometer in place while exercising without creatingdifficulty to breathe. The NICOM provides thirty-second averages ofstroke volume, and so wavelet decomposition was performed on each thirtyseconds of recoded acceleration data. Eighty five 30s averagedmeasurements were taken sequentially using the NICOM, the ECG, and chestaccelerations from each subject.

A filter set was identified using SSS-GA. Four mother wavelets wereutilized in the design process, Daubechies (db); Symlets (sym); Coiflets(coif); BiorSplines (bior); ReverseBior (rbio).

Table 1 shows the best filter set identified to date for extractingstroke volume from chest wall acceleration data. This is a 28 filter setwhich utilizes packets arising from all four mother wavelets combinedwith Body Surface Area (BSA) of the subject, and a constant.

TABLE 1 Filter set solution to capture stroke volume which bicycling atupright position. Mother Wavelet Packet weight bior5.5 5 156 rbio3.3 7−376 coif1 6 −209 rbio1.5 9 −267 sym8 10 476 bior3.7 2 −17.4 sym2 3 128bior1.5 5 155 rbio4.4 1 84 rbio1.5 8 −132 sym7 4 98 rbio1.3 5 309 sym515 205 bior3.9 9 298 db7 3 73 bior5.5 6 −177 rbio1.5 4 −70 db4 4 −68bior1.3 10 −385 db9 1 −70 bior2.8 9 219 db6 16 −391 coif5 3 −65 sym8 15−231 sym7 16 154 rbio2.4 9 −296 bior3.9 8 9.28 db9 2 74 BSA 4.15Constant −14.5

A multiple linear regression evaluation (using equation 1 (below) andtable 2 parameters, where, W—weight, MW—mother wavelet, P—packet) wasused to compare NICOM obtained stroke volume estimates to the chest wallbased stroke volume estimates:SV=4.15·BSA−14.5+W ₁·MW₁(P ₁)+W ₂·MW₂(P ₂)+ . . . +W _(i)·MW_(i)(P _(i))

FIG. 15 illustrates stroke volume values obtained when this best filterset is applied to the recorded chest wall acceleration signals againstNICOM estimates of stroke volume, where stroke volume estimates areaveraged over thirty seconds to allow correlation to the NICOM data. AnR² value of 0.89 for the four young adult men is obtained.

Accurate ventricular contraction times are critical to the performanceof the above described algorithm. In initial algorithm development, ECGrecordings were used to identify the point of ventricular contraction.In order to eliminate the need for the ECG, a procedure was developed toextract left ventricular contraction times directly from theacceleration signal.

Ventricular contraction timing is obtained using two algorithms, anadaptive heart rate detection algorithm, and a contraction locationdetection algorithm. Combined, these two algorithms provide a highcorrelation to the ventricular contraction time-point based on ECGrecordings. In order to develop the adaptive algorithm pair, chest wallacceleration signals were concatenated from seven test subjects withdifferent BSA and BMI. Focus is on contraction detection, since missinga heartbeat while calculating cardiac output is not permitted.

The heart rate detection algorithm isolates the first major accelerationdeviation in the acceleration signal from the second major deviation (interms of heart sounds, this is equivalent to finding the time point ofthe first heart sound without confusing with the second heart sound). Inaddition, this algorithm provides an estimate of subject heart rate(number of heartbeats per minute).

The ventricular contraction algorithm is based on a Continuous WaveletTransform (CWT) approach, where the scaling of the mother wavelet isrelated to the measured hear heart rate. Filter shifting properties areused to isolate the first heart acceleration deviation (Contractionperiod). This algorithm provides a threshold window where only thepositive data are analyzed and negative data rejected. Heart rate ismeasured by counting the number of threshold windows per minute, and isused to scale the CWT ‘db5’ mother wavelet accordingly every 60 seconds.The algorithm was tested on seven subjects between 22 and 60 years old,seated in an upright position, at rest, while breathing. The equationbelow is used to scale the CWT threshold function as a function of heartrate (HR). If the measured HR is greater than 240, CWT is set to be themaximum value the mother wavelet is scaled to 20, otherwise the scalingequation is used.

${CWT}_{scale} = \left\{ \begin{matrix}{20,} & {{HR} > 240} \\{{ceil}\left( \frac{2800}{{HR}^{0.89}} \right)} & {{HR} \leq 240}\end{matrix} \right.$

The scaling algorithm proved to be able to adjust to a sudden new heartrate, as well as being able to adjust to different acceleration signalsobtained from various subjects. FIG. 16 shows an example of thealgorithm detection and adjustment phases. The algorithm detected(locked onto) the first subject's heart rate, then data from a secondsubject were introduced at a random point (˜1.8×10⁴ data point), and thealgorithm quickly adjusted to isolate the desired window, when thesignal is above zero. After the algorithm has adjusted to the newsubject's heart rate (˜2.4×10⁴ at the bottom), the CWT transition issmoother and more definitive allowing better detection. FIG. 16 shows anexample of automatic scaling adjustment based on the previousacceleration data that estimates subjects' heart rate. The arrow pointson the adjustment time location.

Following the CWT Heart rate/window threshold algorithm, a secondalgorithm is used to detect the heart contraction deviation locationusing the defined CWT threshold windows.

Originally, the data were collected and analyzed first with the CWTthreshold function and then with the second algorithm to find the bestfilter set for identifying the contraction time within the CWT thresholdwindow. FIG. 17 shows typical acceleration data from a healthyindividual, where the original acceleration signal at the top, the CWTin with the acceleration energy at the middle, and the isolation windowat the bottom with the original sternum acceleration signal. The Y axisin each of the plots does not correspond to the actual acceleration orenergy. The threshold function in the bottom plot accepts only the datain the positive window where the signal is equal to one and is rejectedelsewhere.

The best mode algorithm performs both rate and location detection at thesame time. The CWT threshold function is computed while the contractiontime location algorithm detection is also computed. When a CWT windowidentifies a threshold time segment (i.e. change from 0 to 1 and from 1to 0) a search for global energy maxima is performed on the combinedfilter set for contraction time location.

Two different algorithms have been defined; one has better sensitivitywhile the second has better positive predictive values. The firstsolution consists of two filters combined by element multiplication.This solution has sensitivity of 0.986 and positive predictive values of0.987 and is composed of element multiplication of ‘db8’ at scaling ofeight and ‘Meyer’ at a scaling of twelve. FIG. 17 shows an exampleapplying this detection algorithm to one subject. The sternumacceleration signal is the top plot; the CWT db8 scaling 8 is the secondplot; the CWT Meyer scaling 12 is the third plot; and, the absolutemultiplication of both signals is shown in the fourth plot where theexpected detection is equal to zero at the time of contraction and isbased on the ECG signal.

The alternative solution consists of three filters and provides betterpositive predictive values (PPV=0.991) than the first solution. However,it has lower sensitivity (0.983). This solution consists of ‘db13’ at ascaling of eight, ‘Meyer’ at a scaling of twelve, and ‘gaus2’ at ascaling of 106.

The three algorithms can be combined to provide stroke volume, heartrate, and cardiac output assessment using one accelerometer placed onthe sternum. They are combined in the following order since eachalgorithm depends on the output of the previous:

1. CWT Threshold—detects a window around the first accelerationdeviation.

2. CTLD—finer detection of the contraction time detection based on CWTThreshold window

3. SV calculation using multi-regression line based on the filtersenergy values at the contraction time given by the CTLD output function.

The first algorithm provides an adaptive threshold window to isolate theheart contraction phase from relaxation phase. The second algorithmdefines the contraction time location at the adaptive threshold windowof the second algorithm. Heart rate calculation provides the scalingfunction of the second algorithm. The third algorithm is applied on acontinuous signal, where SV is calculated using the defined contractiontime to extract the combined energy from the filter set. All arecombined as the “Infrasonic stroke volume”. FIG. 18 shows thealgorithm's function as a whole. The CWT threshold function definesgeneral time segments to look for heart contractions. When the CWTthreshold function defines a window the Contraction Time LocationDetection (CTLD) algorithm output, consists of the two filters elementmultiplication, is pointing at the energy global maxima at the definedCWT TH window. The Stroke Volume (SV) algorithm performs regression(SVR) on all filters values at this time location, providing strokevolume measurement. Instantaneous Heart rate is calculated.

An objective of the present technology is to provide accurate andreproducible cardiac output monitoring in a small, battery operated(i.e. portable) device, specifically, a device that will allow long termcardiac monitoring. By identifying a small set of filters which providehigh correlation to a “gold standard” CO measure, it is possible toutilize a microcontroller device with relatively low levels ofcomputational power to achieve SV and CO outputs in the available time(i.e. between two adjacent heartbeats, e.g. less than 250 ms for a heartrate of 4 Hz, or 250 bpm). For example, the ARM cortex M0+ processor,operating with a 3V battery, can provide 0.9 Dhrystone MillionInstructions Per-Second (DMIPS), allowing the complete algorithm tofinish before new data point is presented.

Thus, the present technology estimates SV from a seismocardiogramrecording, which is obtained by recording chest wall acceleration,preferably at the xiphoid process [109, 192]. This approach involvesperforming multi-wavelet decompositions on the acceleration data togenerate a large pool of features from which a genetic algorithm (GA) isused to select the best packet combination for predicting SV. In asitting position, a patient's back is not against a firm surface,similar to standing, resulting in different chest motions than in thesupine position. Moreover, the organs of the body are shifted towardsthe abdomen, changing the orientation and fluid motion in the body. Thepatient chest vibration is preferably measured while patient breathesnormally.

Cardiac output may be extracted from the displacement signal whilepatient is in a seated position. A twenty pole digital low pass filterwas used to reduce frequencies greater than 50 Hz. It is possible toutilize a 3-D accelerometer to define the chest angles relative togravity, and optimize the cardiac output algorithm based on the twoangles. One accelerometer detects the sternum angle relative to gravityin one direction, forward and backwards. The second accelerometerdetects the relative chest angle to the left and right side of the body.The genetic algorithm is used to define the best packet set for thedifferent positions. An adaptive system based on subject position willprovide the opportunity to wear this device and compute subject dailyroutine.

It is therefore an object to provide a method for computing cardiacoutput, comprising: measuring chest wall movements of a subject;performing a wavelet transform on the measured movements; determining,from the wavelet transformed measured movements, at least a cardiacstroke volume, based on calibration data derived from a plurality ofsubjects; and outputting information selectively dependent on thedetermined cardiac stroke volume.

It is also an object to provide a method for computing cardiac stokevolume, comprising: measuring chest wall movements of a subject;performing a wavelet transform on the measured movements; determining,from the wavelet transformed measured movements, at least a cardiacstroke volume, based on calibration data derived from a plurality ofsubjects; and outputting information selectively dependent on thedetermined cardiac stroke volume.

The movements are detected as vibrations comprising 2-50 Hz, and morepreferably 5-25 Hz. The measured movements may be detected with aposition detector (e.g., interferometer) or accelerometer, for example.

The method typically also determines a heart contraction timing, whichmay be dependent on the measured movements, an ECG, a microphonelistening for heart sounds, a microwave sensor, an echocardiogramsensor, etc. The system preferably also measures a heart rate, and thispermits calculation of cardiac output as the product of heart rate andstroke volume.

The wavelet transform may be based on one or more optimal motherwavelets and associated parameters, determined using a geneticalgorithm. The genetic algorithm may also optimize a polynomial functionto process the wavelet transformed information to determine strokevolume. The wavelet transform may be optimized based on both lowcomputational complexity and correlation with a benchmark, i.e., strokevolume or cardiac output from a verified source. The wavelet transformmay also be derived from at least one of an evolutionary algorithm and agenetic algorithm, which optimizes correlation with a benchmark andcomputational complexity to produce a set of optimum mother wavelets andweights. The method may further comprise employing at least one of anevolutionary algorithm and a genetic algorithm to define an optimalwavelet transform, which optimizes correlation with a benchmark andcomputational complexity. Both the stroke volume and heart contractiontiming may be determined based on the wavelet transformed measuredmovements, and determining a cardiac output, wherein the wavelettransform is optimized based on both low computational complexity andcorrelation with a cardiac output benchmark for the plurality ofsubjects. The wavelet transform may be derived from at least one of anevolutionary algorithm and a genetic algorithm, which defines an optimumset of mother wavelets and weights. The optimum set of mother waveletsmay comprise at least two different types of wavelets. The wavelettransform may comprise at least two different types of mother wavelets,in different decomposition paths. The wavelet transform may comprise aplurality of different mother wavelet types, in a plurality ofdecomposition paths, in a plurality of different filters at differentfrequencies.

The method may further comprise applying a plurality of differentfilters to the measured movements.

The movements may be measured on the sternum, and preferably the xiphoidprocess.

The method may calculate a non-normalized cardiac output value (e.g., adistorted cardiac output value that can be corrected based on subjectparameters to yield a normalized cardiac output value). Thenon-normalized cardiac output value may be stored, communicated over acommunication link, and normalized to produce a cardiac output valuenormalized for at least one body characteristic of the subject. Thecommunication link may comprise Bluetooth.

The non-normalized cardiac output value may be communicated over theBluetooth communication link to a smartphone, and the smartphone maynormalize the non-normalized cardiac output value to produce the cardiacoutput value normalized for the at least one body characteristic of thesubject.

The method may also determine a cardiac ejection fraction, a variabilityof a stroke volume, a variability of a cardiac output, or otherparameters.

The method may employ a system comprising a housing 1 containing atleast: a movement sensor, e.g., transducer 7; a microcontroller, e.g.,automated processor 2; a memory 4; a power source, e.g. self-containedpower source 5; and a communication port 3, wherein the measuredmovements are determined by the movement sensor, the stroke volume isdetermined by the microcontroller powered by the power source, stored inthe memory, and communicated through the communication port. Anacceleration sensor 6, discussed below, may also be provided in thehousing 1. The housing may have a volume of less than about 4 cubicinches, e.g., <2″ diameter and ¾″ thick. The housing may be configuredto be wearable by a human affixed to the sternum. The microcontrollermay have an average power consumption while determining stroke volume ona beat-by-beat basis of less than about 300 mW, and be powered by arechargeable battery. The battery may be, for example, a 2,400 mW-Hrbattery to provide for 8 hours of continuous use.

Another object provides a system for computing cardiac output,comprising: a transducer configured to sense chest wall movements of asubject; at least one automated processor, configured to: perform awavelet transform on the measured movements based on at least onepredefined mother wavelet and at least one set of weights; anddetermine, from the wavelet transformed measured chest wall movements,at least a cardiac stroke volume, based on calibration data derived froma plurality of humans; and at least one of an output port and a memory,configured to receive information selectively dependent on thedetermined cardiac stroke volume. The system may further comprise ahousing configured to be wearable by a human, containing at least: thetransducer having an output corresponding to chest wall movement; aself-contained power source; and the at least one automated processor,comprising a microcontroller powered by the self-contained power sourceconfigured to process the transducer output on a beat-by-beat basis, toproduce information adapted for estimating the cardiac stroke volume, tostore the information in the memory, and to communicate the storedinformation through the communication port; wherein the communicatedstored information is adapted to be processed by a remote system tocalculate a cardiac output. An acceleration sensor may also be provided,configure to determine an acceleration vector of the housing, theacceleration sensor being distinct from the transducer, themicrocontroller being further configured to determine an artifactcondition based on the acceleration vector.

The method may further comprise measuring an acceleration vector of thehousing through an accelerometer distinct from the movement sensor, anddetermining an artifact condition based on the measure acceleration.This is particularly helpful where the movement sensor for determiningthe stroke volume is readily saturated by significant body movements,and the subject is unconstrained and moving.

While it is preferred that the cardiac timing be determined from thesame chest wall movements as are used to determine the stroke volume,the timing can also be determined using electrocardiogram input,phonocardiogram input, microwave, echocardiogram, or other types ofsensors.

The method may further comprise receiving a height and a weight of thesubject, and calculating a cardiac output based on at least the height,weight, stroke volume, and a heart rate.

The method may further comprise persistently storing in a memory a valuecalculated dependent on the stroke volume for each heartbeat.

The subject may be a human, mammal, or other animal. The chest wallmovements of the subject may be measured during breathing and/orphysical exertion. For quadrupeds, a distinct optimization would berequired.

It is a further object to provide a system for computing cardiac output,comprising: a transducer configured to sense chest wall movements of asubject; an automated processor, configured to: perform a wavelettransform on the measured movements based on at least one predefinedmother wavelet and at least one set of weights; and determine, from thewavelet transformed measured movements, at least a cardiac strokevolume, based on calibration data derived from a plurality of humans;and at least one of an output port and a memory, configured to receiveinformation selectively dependent on the determined cardiac strokevolume. The automated processor may comprise a reduced instruction setcomputer (RISC) processor, e.g., an ARM processor.

It is a still further object to provide a method for analyzing abiological signal, comprising: receiving the biological signal as aseries of digitized values representing a continuous process; performinga wavelet transform on the series of digitized values; calculating apolynomial function of the wavelet transformed series of digitizedvalues; and outputting a calculation result of the polynomial function.The outputted calculation result may be determined substantially withoutinverting the wavelet transform. The wavelet transform may comprise aplurality of different wavelet waveforms and a plurality of differentdecomposition paths.

The wavelet transform and polynomial function may be together derivedbased on at least a genetic algorithm and at least one fitnesscriterion.

The continuous process may comprise, for example, electroencephalogramsignals, or electromyogram signals.

A further object provides a method for analyzing a signal, comprising:receiving a series of digitized values representing a physical process;defining at least one fitness criterion for a wavelet transform on theseries of digitized values comprising a convolution of a plurality ofdifferent mother wavelet waveforms in a plurality of differentdecomposition paths, the wavelet transform comprising a plurality ofrespective terms and at least one respective parameter applied to eachrespective term; optimizing the at least one respective parameterapplied to each respective term of the wavelet transform, based on atleast an iterative genetic algorithm and the defined at least onefitness criterion; and storing the optimized at least one respectiveparameter applied to each respective term of the wavelet transform. Theplurality of respective terms of the wavelet transform and at least onerespective parameter applied to each respective term may be togetheroptimized based on the at least an iterative genetic algorithm and theat least one fitness criterion. The at least one respective parameterapplied to each respective term of the wavelet transform may becalculated based on at least a correlation R² of the wavelet transformwith a reference at a respective stage of the iterative geneticalgorithm, and a precision of the correlation R² is sufficiently limitedin order to increase a rate of convergence of the iterative geneticalgorithm. The method may further comprise receiving a time-continuousbiological signal; digitizing the biological signal to form the seriesof digitized values; and employing the stored optimized at least onerespective parameter applied to each respective term of the wavelettransform to process the series of digitized values to determine abiological parameter, substantially without inverting the wavelettransform.

The biological signal may comprise at least one of anelectroencephalogram signal, an electrocardiogram signal, anelectromyogram signal, a phonocardiogram signal, a ballistocardiogramsignal, an ultrasound signal, an x-ray signal, a magnetic resonancesignal, a lung sound signal, and a bowel noise signal.

It is a still further object to provide a method for analyzing a signal,comprising: receiving a series of digitized values; performing a wavelettransform on the series of digitized values comprising a plurality ofdifferent wavelet waveforms and a plurality of different decompositionpaths; calculating a polynomial function of the wavelet transformedseries of digitized values; and outputting a calculation result of thepolynomial function, wherein the wavelet transform and the polynomialfunction are together optimized based on at least a genetic algorithmand at least one fitness criterion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the general approach of using multiple filter banksevaluated by a GA. The input signal is decomposed by multiple motherwavelets producing multiple filter banks, showing in different colors. Achromosome's genes specify a subset from those filter banks. Each subsetis combined to give SV estimation and compared against a “goldstandard.”

FIG. 2 shows a general CHC flow chart, where survival of the fittestacross generations is implemented.

FIG. 3 shows a chromosome structure used by MMX_SSS, where the SSS genededicates the number of expressed genes within the chromosome and N isone plus the maximum SSS allowed in a gene.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a two level wavelet tree decomposition, wherethe second decomposition level consists of four packets, creating afilter bank of four different filters, used as CHC genes.

FIG. 5 shows the MMX_SSS crossover operator.

FIG. 6 shows the offspring SSS interval, where parent C1 is more fitthan parent C2.

FIG. 7 shows characterization of experiment one. The X axis representsevolution time, either individual chromosome evaluation (upper panel) orgeneration (middle and lower panels). In the upper panel, the Y axis isthe individual features and there is a point for each index that waspresent in the population. The middle panel shows the SSS gene of allchromosomes within the population of each generation. The bottom plotshows evaluation of the best, worst, and average chromosomes within thepopulation of each generation.

FIG. 8 shows results from the second experiment, where the perfect(seeded) solution was found. The GA successfully detects the fivefeatures. The upper panel shows that as the number of generationincreases the seeded features are observed. As the number of generationincreases the chromosome with the same fitness value but smaller SSSgene survives, as the middle panel shows. A good solution is found atthe initialization stage as the lower panel shows.

FIG. 9 shows the “seeded” features are sampled many more times thanother features. Vertical lines separate the different mother wavelets.

FIG. 10 shows a seeded solution is embedded in the dataset, and all dataare perturbed with Gaussian noise. Similar to experiment one, the GAfails to converge.

FIG. 11 shows a reduction of the precision of R² results in successfulconvergence. Smaller SSS is achieved since weak features are eliminated.

FIG. 12 shows the “seeded” features which are strongly connected areagain preferred, but (compare to FIG. 9) weak connections are eliminatedand new connections are observed.

FIG. 13 shows convergence of original dataset with reduced precision onR². The SSS converted to twenty one (middle panel) and the bestchromosome maintained good correlation (bottom panel).

FIGS. 14A, 14B and 14C show chest acceleration recording reported byvarious investigators, illustrating that there is not a typical chestacceleration signal.

FIG. 15 illustrates stroke volume values obtained when this best filterset is applied to the recorded chest wall acceleration signals againstNICOM estimates of stroke volume, where stroke volume estimates areaveraged over thirty seconds to allow correlation to the NICOM data. AnR² value of 0.89 for the four young adult men is obtained.

FIGS. 16A and 16B show an example of automatic scaling adjustment basedon the previous acceleration data that estimates subjects' heart rate.The arrow points on the adjustment time location.

FIG. 17 shows a CWT approach to isolate the desired windows using chestacceleration.

FIG. 18 shows detection of heart contraction time location for onesubject.

FIG. 19 shows the three algorithms combined to provide cardiacinformation

FIG. 20 shows a semi-schematic drawing of a device according to thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present technology provides a system and method for calculatingcardiac output based on infrasonic chest wall movements, in anunconstrained subject. An accelerometer is provided to measure xiphoidprocess movements, which provide indication of both heart rate andstroke volume. While heart rate can also be obtained from othermeasures, the present technology permits (but does not mandate) use of asingle transducer. The sensor data is processed by an algorithm thatprovides high correlation to standard measures of cardiac output, andhas high self-consistency. To extract the two components of cardiacoutput, HR and SV, two different algorithms were developed. First, theHR algorithm was developed using a wavelet-based decomposition using agenetic algorithm to optimize the mother wavelet and associatedparameters. The resulting algorithm determines both the heart rate andtime of ventricular contraction (ejection). Second, the SV algorithm,synchronized by the HR algorithm, analyzes chest wall movement, e.g.,velocity, to estimate the ejection volume. Together, these algorithmscan execute on relatively low resource computational platform to providestroke by stroke calculation of cardiac output in real time, i.e., thecalculations are complete before the next heartbeat.

Cardiac Output is defined as the amount of blood the heart pumps perminute. At each heartbeat the heart contracts, the blood is pushed outfrom the left ventricle into the aorta. Due to this movement, chestvolume is decreased, displacing the sternum to inwards. Thisdisplacement results in acceleration at the sternum. The accelerometercaptures this acceleration, which is analyzed to calculate the chestdisplacement. In general, the displacement is equal to the doubleintegral of acceleration.

This technology is applicable to medical, sports and fitness, andnon-invasive monitoring environments. It is believed that the technologymay also be used in veterinary environments, with the parameters of thealgorithms recalculated depending on the species and other physicalparameters.

The optimization of the parameters of the algorithms do not need to bereplicated in the target monitoring device, but significantmodifications of underlying presumptions would suggest reoptimization.Therefore, the target device need only receive the accelerometer orother infrasonic pickup device output, filter and preprocess the data,and execute the algorithm, which may be dependent on a subject's sex,body surface area, weight, or other readily ascertainable physicalcharacteristics. While it is preferred that a single algorithm subjectto these inputs be used, it is of course possible to provide a family ofalgorithms that are selected and employed dependent on the physicalsubject attributes and context. For example, the algorithm may differfor patients suffering from various heart diseases than for healthysubjects, e.g., mitral valve prolapse, where cardiac output as reflectedin aortic flows may require correction of the stroke volume for reflux.Similarly, cardiomegaly may require use of corrections or a distinctlyoptimized algorithm.

It is also noted that, for any given subject, the target device mayadaptively optimize its implementation to compute relative cardiacoutput, or a related measurement, though absent a calibration standard,absolute cardiac output calculation requires use of a verifiedalgorithm.

A multiaxis accelerometer permits intrinsic determination of patientposture and physical activity, which can also be used as inputs to thealgorithm.

The technology may also be integrated with other sensors, such as ECG,echocardiogram, microwave (radar) chest sensing, phonocardiogram, pulseoximeter, blood pressure, respiration sensor, peripheral vascularresistance (see Sharrock et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,821,403; 7,727,157;6,994,675), body fluid chemistry (e.g., saliva or sweat CO₂ and pH), andother non-invasive, minimally invasive or invasive measurements.

The technology may be implemented in a miniature form factor, and forexample provide a module that adheres to the chest wall. The module maycomprise the entire system, i.e., housing, sensor, analog signalprocessing (if employed), microprocessor, data memory, program memory,power supply, user interface, and data communications, or merely thehousing, sensor, signal processing, and communications (e.g.,Bluetooth), without execution of the algorithm. In the latter case, thecardiac output may be determined by an associated computing device, suchas a smartphone, which receives the sensor data through thecommunication interface, and provides a platform for execution of thealgorithm, user interface, and remote data interface.

The wavelet transform is a popular analysis tool for non-stationarydata, but in many cases, the choice of the mother wavelet and basis setremains uncertain, particularly when dealing with physiological data.Furthermore, the possibility exists for combining information fromnumerous mother wavelets so as to exploit different features from thedata. However, the combinatorics become daunting given the large numberof basis sets that can be utilized. Recent work in evolutionarycomputation has produced a subset selection genetic algorithmspecifically aimed at the discovery of small, high-performance, subsetsfrom among a large pool of candidates.

This algorithm may be applied to the task of locating subsets of packetsfrom multiple mother wavelet decompositions to estimate cardiac outputfrom chest wall motions while avoiding the computational cost of fullsignal reconstruction. A continuous assessment metric can be extractedfrom the wavelet coefficients, but the technology preferably achieves adual-nature objective of high accuracy with small feature sets, imposinga need to restrict the sensitivity of the continuous accuracy metric inorder to achieve the small subset size desired.

Example 1 Transducer

Pilot studies were conducted using a standard MEMS accelerometer(Kistler Model 8312A). Different recording locations on the chest wallwere investigated as well as the required filtering and equipmentnecessary to accurately and reproducibly extract CO measurements.Various analog filters, digital filters, and basic mathematical analysisapproaches for removing noise and recording artifacts from theacceleration signal were also investigated. These initial studies reliedon integrating the acceleration signal to obtain a displacement signalfrom which SV was determined. Polynomial curve fit baseline subtractionwas the initial approach used to remove slow trends associated withintegration and breathing. Wavelet analysis was used to remove noisefrom the recorded signal. First and second correlation to a NICOMBio-impedance device showed good CO correlation.

The first recordings were undertaken in order to test the possibility ofcapturing a reproducible signal and provided cardiac information.Similar to previous studies reported in the literature, the initialrecordings were performed with the subject supine (lying down on theirback) and holding their breath for a period of 20 seconds. Threedifferent recording locations were selected based on cardiac recordingtechniques utilized by others. These locations were assessed to minimizenoise and other artifacts from the cardiac signal. The signal than wasanalyzed to extract cardiac information. Filtering and polynomial fitbase subtraction were used to analyze the recorded data and providedrepetitive waveform. Polynomial fit base subtraction provided consistentresults to estimated CO from the recorded signal.

The recording location of any physiological signal is essentialcomponent in signal fidelity and reproducibility. Numerousconsiderations need to be taken into account when selecting therecording location. Muscle, fat, bones and cartilage and personalcomfort are some of the components which effect the decision forrecording location. Skeletal muscle vibrations in the range of 8-150 Hzare produced when contraction occurs and so can contribute to backgroundnoise in the infrasonic frequency range. Fat may contribute to lowfrequency vibration and also isolate or reduce specific frequencies.Bones and cartilage, in general, will transfer most acoustic energysince they are relatively solid matter, however they have a verydifferent acoustic impedance than soft tissue, so will reflect a largeportion of acoustic energy arising in soft tissue. With respect topericardial motion recording, the skeletal system plays a critical roleas the chest wall must flex in order to permit chest wall motionrecording. A rigid rib cage will severely limit that motion of the chestwall. Comfort is also important to patients and as recording accuracy.If patients are not comfortable, the device may not be placed correctlyor will shift from the original location over time.

Recordings were taken during breath holding and regular breathing usinga 2G Kistler accelerometer, with pre-amplification (Model 5210). Initialrecording showed that the sternum location provided the most consistentmeasurement sites since there is typically little muscle or fat at thislocation. This location is also easy to find and is symmetric compare tothe other locations. The Apex location and its distance from the chestwalls vary from one person to another, depends on subject physicality.In general, the apex is about 0.53±0.53 cm from the inner wall of chest,and 2.76±0.80 cm from the chest surface while subject is in supineposition [127]. Moreover, females may have difficulty to place atransducer at the apex location. The upper chest location, between ribstwo and three, slightly left from the sternum, has substantialunderlying skeletal Pectoralis Major muscle, which can disturb therecorded signal if these muscles contract. Also, one person may placethe transducer at slightly different locations than another, similar towhat can occur at the apex location. Measurements were taken from oneindividual and were analyzed resulting in the selection of the lowersternum location above the xiphoid as the optimal recording location.The signal may be amplified digitally by a gain of 100 and sampled at2,000 Hz.

The recorded signal demonstrates significant higher frequency componentsand has an offset due to the capture of the earth's gravitational field.Therefore, two filters were used as a band pass filter to capturefrequencies between 0.05 to 150 Hz.

Heart Physiology

The ECG signal starts with the P wave deflection, result associated withboth atria contracting, and correspondingly to an outward deflection ofthe chest wall, at maximum peak location. Ventricular contractionfollows and is represented by the negative going curve (inward movementof the chest wall). SV is calculated using the slope connecting thesetwo maxima. Isometric contraction occurs and provides constant bloodpressure for a short period of time, directly correlated to systolicblood pressure. Following the ECG T wave, the ventricles relaxes andeccentric contraction occurs. The ventricles start to refill while theblood moves from the aorta out to the rest of the body. The displacementsignal does not fully agree with the seismocardiogramy signal. Forexample, the acceleration signal shows MC—mitral valve close andAO—Aorta valve open deflections. The displacement signal does not showthose events since the heart muscle is in isometric contraction duringthis period, resulting in blood pressure increase. Therefore, there isnot much displacement and the acceleration is close to zero.

When the subject is breathing, the velocity signal contains distinctsinusoidal variation due to motion of the chest wall resulting frominhalation and exhalation. A polynomial cure fit was used to remove thislow frequency noise. The integrated acceleration, which is the velocitysignal in blue, has tenth order polynomial curve fit base subtraction.

Algorithmic Development

Detrending was employed to remove the lower frequency components of thesignal. Specifically, a 10^(th) order polynomial curve fit wasincorporated after the first integration as a means to reestablish aflat baseline for the chest velocity signal. The velocity was thencalculated. Even though the subject, in this case, holds his/her breathethe chest still moves slowly and can be seen to have substantial lowfrequency components. The corrected velocity is used to identifyheartbeat time duration using the negative amplitude deviation segments.These negative peaks can be used to define a windows segment to beanalyzed. Similarly, a correction using polynomial curve fitting is doneto the displacement of the signal after the velocity is integrated. Thepolynomial function was derived as a least squares regression fitting tothe velocity signal.

Three heartbeats were taken as the window of integration, using thevelocity signal for the entire analyzed duration. The number of analyzedwindows therefore equals the number of recorded heartbeats minus two.The interval of a window has a correction based on a ninth orderpolynomial curve fit and is performed on the velocity signal and on thedisplacement signal. Therefore, each heartbeat has a third order curvefit as a correction factor. The second heartbeat, which is in the middleof the window, is analyzed and provides the displacement of the chestwall.

The acceleration signal is integrated and provides the velocity signal.

In this case the analyzed data consists of seven seconds of recordingswhile the subject holds their breath. There are six heartbeatsgenerating four displacement signals. The maximum displacement variationis associated with the chest volume change, which is directly related tothe heart Stroke Volume (SV). The SV is related to the Ejection Time(ET) which is about 300 milliseconds from the first positivedisplacement peak to the second positive displacement peak (0.38-0.65s). The Heart Rate (HR) is calculated using the time difference from oneheart contraction to another. Therefore, the CO can be found by themultiplication of the average SV by HR.

The displacement signal at the upper chest wall varies much more thanthe displacement signal at the apex location and the displacement signalat the sternum location, and a peak velocity was not calculated by theprogram. Therefore, those values were chosen manually to calculate eachdisplacement signal.

Even a very sharp filter cannot effectively remove the noise artifactsat low frequencies. Therefore, a polynomial curve fit based subtractionwas employed to analyze a small window of three heartbeats, which isused after the first integration to provide the chest velocity. Anotherpolynomial curve fit based subtraction was then applied at the secondintegration to provide the chest displacement. The average of the middledisplacement of all windows provides reasonably reproducible informationof the stroke volume and corresponding CO. In particular, the sternumlocation found to be better location to record the signal perhaps due tochest symmetry and the lack of fat and muscle at this area. Importantly,this location can be found more easily than the other two locations.Literature on the Kinetocardiogram indicates that the sternum locationmoves symmetrically inward which also justifies the sternum location[105]. The large and symmetric motion at this site has been explained bythree factors: 1) the intrathoracic pressure change associated withejection of blood; 2) a shift of blood from the lower to the upperchest; and 3) heart movement, pulling inward the anterior surface of thechest [105].

The mechanical activity of the heart is related to the electricalactivity of the heart muscle, through a process referred to asexcitation-contraction coupling. Correspondingly, the ECG can be used toprovide a time marker to identify when the left ventricle is about tocontract. To observe the heart's electrical activity, a pair of ECGelectrodes may be used, which provide the second ECG vector, that is, ina direction from the right arm to the left leg. This vector directionreflects the hearts electrical activity from the sinus node to the apex,which is the natural pattern of the heart's electrical current flow. Theheart's electrical activity shows six deflections. The P wave isassociated with atrial contraction. The Q, R, S segment is associatedwith ventricular contraction. The T wave is associated with the heart'srelaxation phase. The U wave is not common and associated with heartdisease. Knowing these deflections, allows temporal alignment with thechest mechanical recordings and interpret identify the hearts activity.

Simultaneous recordings of the heart ECG and chest acceleration weretaken to observe the relationship between the heart mechanical activityand its electrical activity while the subject was breathe holding. ThreeECG electrodes were used to record the ECG lead two. The first electrodeis placed on the right shoulder and the second is placed on the leftside of the stomach below the left ribs. The third electrode is placedon the right side of the stomach below the ribs and is used as areference potential. The Kistler accelerometer was placed on thesternum. Two filters were connected to the acceleration transducer. Thefirst one was a high pass filter at 0.05 Hertz and the second a low passfilter set at 100 Hertz, to minimize noise and other recordingartifacts. The accelerometer output was amplified by a gain of 100before digitizing at a sampling rate of 2000 Hz. The recordings weretaken with the subject in supine position. Duplicate recordings weretaken. The first recording was taken with the subject's holding theirbreath, and the second was with normal breathing. It is known that theelectrical activity of the heart occurs before the mechanical activity.Specifically, the QRS complex occurs immediately before the start ofventricular contraction, and correspondingly, the magnitude of theacceleration increases rapidly. Following the T wave of the ECG there isa period of high frequency vibration, which indicates the second heartsound and the beginning of the heart's relaxation phase.

The average displacement signal was computed and seen to be slightlydifferent than the breath-holding displacement signal. In general, thereis a greater chest displacement during cardiac contraction when thesubject does not hold their breath.

Further analysis was done to correlate the displacement amplitude tobreathing pattern. The velocity signal was used to distinguish theinitial inhale and exhale periods. The breathing pattern is clearly seenin the velocity signal. However, it is hard to distinguish the patternusing the acceleration signal. This signal provides the inhale andexhale breathing periods, with the minimum velocity points identifyingthe beginning of the inhalation period. The maximum velocity points areconsidered to be at the beginning of the exhale period. These periodswere identified and analyzed separately. The acceleration signal wasintegrated and filtered using high order digital high pass filter toreduce the breathing pattern. High order polynomial curve fit requireshigh computation power, and therefore it is not used inresource-constrained applications.

The average chest displacement due to heart contraction at the beginningof exhalation was found to be about 200 microns resulting in chestcompression inward. During expiration, respiratory loading caused anincrease in stroke volume. During exhalation, the intrathoracic pressureincreases, resulting in decreased venous return, and therefore atrialfilling, resulting in a decrease in stroke volume at the end ofexhalation and beginning of inhalation; corresponding increase in heartrate. During inhalation, intrathoracic pressure decreases, enhancingvenous return and therefore stroke volume, resulting in a decrease inheart rate decreasing during inhalation [127, 129, 130].

The average chest displacement signal measured at the beginning ofinhalation in this sample is about 150 microns. As stroke volumenormally increases during inhalation, this sample may be too early inthe respiratory cycle to show the benefit of increased venous return.

Simultaneous recordings of ECG and acceleration signals provided ageneral interpretation of the displacement signal. Seismocardiograpyinterpretation provided some information about the displacement signalbut was not totally consistent with previous observations. Long durationrecordings of chest acceleration allowed observation of cardiacdifferences between the inhale and exhale periods of breathing. Thechest displacement signal was found to be different when subjects heldtheir breath and when the subjects breathed regularly. In general,during an inhalation, chest displacement due to ventricular contractionis greater reflecting a greater heart stroke volume consistent withincreased venous return associated with inhalation.

Example 2

In the next stage of testing, a new, lower noise, and more sensitive,accelerometer was used to record the acceleration signal. Theaccelerometer 1221 from Silicon Design was used which provided greatersensitivity (2000 mV/g) and lower noise (5 μg/Hz^(1/2)). Thedisplacement signal, correspondingly, was observed to have a slightlydifferent pattern than the previous recorded signal. In addition,wavelet analysis techniques were employed to remove the high and lowfrequencies components of the chest acceleration signal, and providebetter artifact removal. The new transducer included amplification alongwith low pass and high pass filters. The high pass filter was set at 8Hz and the low pass filter at 370 Hz. The recordings were performedsimilarly to the previous recordings. The displacement signal isslightly different, since the low frequency components below 8 Hz, whichwere captured in the previous recordings, have relatively largeamplitudes. These low frequency components are reduced significantlywith the 8 Hz high pass and so do not affect the signal as much as theprevious recordings. In this case, all the signals are decimated to bethe same length, and permitting better averaging. The averagedisplacement is about 150 microns.

When a subject speaks, coughs, or vocalizes in any way, the chestvibrations overlap in the recorded frequency spectrum. Therefore, a lowpass filter, as previously described, is applied at 50 Hz to minimizethe influence of these artifacts. The significance of the filter isshown by looking on the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) of a typicalacceleration signal before and after the filter. The sampling frequencyat this point is 2 KHz, and is decimated by a factor of ten. In general,when speaking, women generate higher frequencies at a lower magnitudethan men. This has an effect on the analyzed frequency spectrum.Therefore, the present example focuses on men. It is understood that anadaptive filter can assist in removing voice sounds and environmentalvibrations and sounds from the spectrum to be analyzed. The frequenciesover 50 Hz have higher magnitude during speaking. In men, frequencies inthe 90-100 Hz range have high magnitude. The observed heart frequenciesare primarily at 0.5-50 Hz. The frequency spectrum of a typical womanwhile speaking shows frequencies both lower and higher than 50 Hz havelower magnitudes than the observed in the frequency spectra of men. Atwenty pole digital low pass filter at 50 Hz lowers the magnitude offrequencies associated with speech. The average displacement signalshows good correlation. However, not all the displacement signals align,but for the most part they do. Fast breathing or panting produces lowfrequency noises, and can be reduced by using high order high passfilter at 2 Hz.

The transducer provides three filters; the first filter is a three polehigh pass filter at 8 Hertz; the second filter is a three pole low passfilter at 370 Hertz; and the last filter is a one pole high pass filterat 1.5 Hertz. The total gain of this system is about 400.

Because of the high pass filter, this transducer is only weaklysensitive to frequencies between 1 and 8 Hz. The observed cardiacfrequency is generally considered to cover the 1-50 Hz range. Therefore,the input transducer may not contain all desired information. Thetransducer's transfer function is flat in range of 10 Hertz to 200Hertz. The signal is sampled at frequency f_(s) at 2000 Hertz, anddecimated by a factor of ten, f_(d) at 200 Hertz, before the waveletanalysis is done. Theoretically, the high pass filter should be at 2 Hzto reduce breathing and other low frequency noises, while the low passfilter should be at 50 Hz to reduce speaking and other high frequencynoises.

Polynomial cure fit baselines subtraction demands substantialcomputational power. Therefore, more efficient and accurate methods weresought. Wavelet decomposition of the signal provides the capability todistinguish between different frequencies sets and reconstruct thefiltered signal.

The analysis in this case utilized four steps. The first step wasdecimating the signal by a factor of ten. Therefore, the analyzedNyquist frequency the original sampling frequency of 2000 Hertz became100 Hertz. The second step was signal decomposition, where six levels ofdecomposition was performed using Matlab wavelet toolbox. It was foundthat the sixth level of decomposition using Shannon entropy as the costfunction was most efficient. A wavelet program was written to havecomplete control on the processed signal and was used in the analysis.The third step was to reconstruct an output signal with selected packetsbase on the desired energy spectrum. The last step is to integrate thesignal twice and acquire the displacement signal. Another analysis wasdone by preforming the double integration first and then performingwavelet analysis on the displacement signal.

Since the custom transducer had a high pass filter at 8 Hz, the velocitysignal is centered at an equilibrium point after the first integration.The displacement signal, however, still has significant low frequencycomponents. The acceleration signal is reconstructed from a fifthdecomposition level using packets set of 2 to 28, where a sixth orderDaubechies has been used as the mother wavelet. The double integrationprovides the reconstructed displacement signal, which is centered atzero. The low frequency component of the signal is reduced. Therefore,the ability of wavelet analysis to process the signal was found to beeffective. Further analysis is needed to “polish” the displacementsignal.

The displacement due to ventricular contraction is measured from themaximum peak around 0.28 seconds to the minimum peak around 0.32seconds. All seven contractions contribute to the average chestdisplacement. The average does not represent the true average of alldisplacements. Therefore, the chest displacement of each heartbeat iscalculated and averaged. Better results are achieved when the waveletanalysis is done on the true displacement signal, taking the doubleintegration on the acceleration signal first and then computing thewavelet transform.

Clinical Testing

Ten subjects were selected for comparison recordings. The recordingswere taken while the subjects were in the supine position and breathingnormally for thirty seconds as well as during a short conversation ofthirty seconds. This process was also completed while the subjects werein a seated position and a standing position. Wavelet analysis wasperformed on the displacement signal for each recording and compared.Most of the subjects were in their twenties, and two subjects werewomen. The average displacement of each subject is compared. Sixdecomposition levels are used and packets 2-28 were reconstructed toreduce the low and high frequency noises. Frequencies between 50 Hz and100 Hz where not reconstructed in this example since there is nosignificant frequency content in the displacement signal in this range,and the literature also justifies using frequencies below fifty Hertz.

Since the raw signals are noisy, the algorithm uses the velocity signalas the marking point to find the ventricular contraction peaks. However,these peaks are not consistently detected.

There is an inverse relationship between chest displacement and BMI. Assubject BMI is higher the chest displacement is lower. Assuming high BMIrelated to greater chest circumference, the total chest volume isgreater; the chest displacement due to blood flow is smaller. As showsthe R² value is low, but the representative trend-line has percentagecoefficient of variation of 26.6 from the base line. One subject wasremoved from this analysis since all other subjects were in theirtwenties. Better correlation is achieved when the chest volume and heartrate are factored into the regression analysis. The standard deviationpercentage from the base line is better and the R² value is higher at0.46. Additional demographic parameters (age, gender, etc.) would needto be taken into account to provide an accurate estimate of cardiacoutput; nonetheless, this result shows the ability to use themeasurements to assess cardiac activity. Moreover, some of the subjectsneeded to adjust the transducer on their chest to create more pressurebetween the transducer and their chest, adding errors to the recordings.

It is typically necessary to compare new measurement techniques to theexisting technique to illustrate correlation between the two to provideproof of concept. If there exists a “gold standard” measurement, thencomparison to the ‘gold standard” is essential. In the case of cardiacoutput assessment there is no existing gold standard. Invasive catheterbased measurements are commonly used in the hospital setting as acentral line has often been placed into a patient for some alternativepurpose, but this approach is widely viewed as inaccurate, and moreover,preforming invasive cardiac output measurements is not possible in anon-hospital setting. Therefore, non-invasive cardiac output monitoring(NICOM) equipment was used to provide cardiac output measurements. It isimportant to perform simultaneous recordings while comparing themeasurements to show a “standard” measurement. Specifically, abioelectroimpedance based technique developed by Cheetah Medical ofIsrael was elected, which had recently received FDA approval.

Largely as a result of NASA funded research, bioelectrical impedancetechniques for estimating cardiac output have been shown to be aneffective alternative to ultrasonic or invasive measurement approachesto obtain CO. Correspondingly, over the last decade, several companieshave begun to offer commercial CO monitoring devices based onbioelectroimpedance. Specifically, Cheetah Medical has developedbio-impedance system (NICOM) which they refer to as a bio-reactancedevice. This device has obtained some acceptance in the hospitalenvironment and provides continuous non-invasive cardiac outputmonitoring for several hours, or until the electrodes become detachedfrom the skin. Importantly, this equipment does not require a physicianor other clinician as an operator, significantly lowering operatingcosts. Standard bio-impedance systems rely on a standard four-electrodecurrent source recording arrangement. They apply a high-frequencyconstant amplitude electrical current across the thorax using twoelectrodes, and record the corresponding voltage difference between theremaining two high input impedance electrodes. The ratio between themeasured voltage and applied current amplitudes is a measure oftransthoracic impedance. This instantaneous impedance change is relatedto the stoke volume (SV) change, and is proportional to the product ofpeak flow and ventricle ejection time (VET). SV is proportional to theproduct of maximum impedance change and to the phase shift change.

The correlation between chest motion due to heart contraction to cardiacoutput was determined. The first verification was performed between thereconstructed infrasonic displacement signal and the NICOM measurementsof cardiac output. NICOM, ECG and Infrasonic measurements were takensimultaneously while the subject was in supine position; seated at anangle of 30°, supine with legs are at 30° from the horizontal lineparallel to the ground, and after a short exercise. The average of thesternum displacement, has been compared to NICOM cardiac outputmeasurements. The sternum displacement was measured at the two hundredmilliseconds time point following the ECG QRS complex, calculated fromthe reconstructed infrasonic displacement signal. In this case, a 10saverage sternum displacement obtained from a one minute NICOM cardiacoutput recording is compared.

The chest acceleration signal is recorded simultaneously with the ECGsignal and is integrated twice. Wavelet transform is performed on thedisplacement signal, where the original signal is decomposed andspecific packets are selected for reconstruction. The reconstructedsignal is then aligned with the ECG signal. The inward movement of thechest is captured by the reconstructed displacement signal.

Correlation analysis was performed using the average chest volume changedue to heart contraction over one minute interval. The cardiac output isthe product of the average volume change per minute and heart rateobtained from the Infrasonic cardiac output.

A correlation of R²=0.72 was achieved by computing five waveletdecomposition levels using 6^(th) order Daubechies as the filtercoefficients. At the fifth decomposition level, packets two to twentyeight were selected for reconstruction. Shannon entropy indicated thatthe most signal information is within the first packet, which containsthe lowest frequency components, but these are below the heart'sfrequency spectrum. Therefore, Shannon entropy does not provide a goodindication for selecting packets for reconstruction. Packets with themost heart information are between one to fifty hertz and so wereselected for reconstruction. Another aspect for reducing computationaltime and increasing cardiac output correlation, is by computing moredecomposition levels. By computing more decomposition levels finerfrequency segments and select a better packet set is achieved. However,computational time increases as decomposition level increases. The R²value does not change much between fifth and eighth decompositionlevels, where all the packets were selected for reconstruction exceptthe first packet; lower frequency range, and the last four packets, highfrequency range.

Choosing a different Mother wavelet may also increase cardiac outputcorrelation and decrease computation time for lower order filters. Eachfilter has double its coefficient based on its order. For example;Daubechies one, which also known as the Haar wavelet, has two filtercoefficients; Daubechies two has four filter coefficients; Daubechiesthree has six filter coefficient and so on. From Daubechies two toDaubechies ten the correlation to NICOM cardiac output is about thesame. Daubechies two is computed the fastest, but in general the size ofthe filter does not greatly affect the computation time nor providebetter results.

There are many possibilities to perform different filters at differentdecomposition levels and choose different packet sets to achieve fastercomputation and obtain better cardiac output correlation. Thepossibility of using one or more packets to correlate to cardiac outputis also an option which should be investigated. Since there are so manypotential wavelet packet possibilities, Genetic Algorithm strategieswere applied to define the best packet set or CO prediction.

Since one measurement does not provide a reliable cardiac outputcorrelation, further investigation was done on multiple subjects.Measurements from four subjects were taken simultaneously using theNICOM, ECG, and chest acceleration. Subjects were asked to be in supineposition for seven minutes until NICOM calibrated and performedsufficient CO measurements to start the experiment. Subjects were movedto a sitting position, and then began to exercise for 35 minutes,involving cycling for two minutes and resting for five minutes.

Previously the ECG algorithm was able to detect the contraction time(QRS complex) when the ECG signal was stable, but did a poor job whensignal was not stable; i.e. when the subject was exercising. Thealgorithm was modified to have better QRS detection using a wavelettransform. Similarly to the acceleration signal, the ECG signal suffersfrom low and high frequency noises. A similar approach was used toremove the noise from the ECG signal, providing a correlation ofR²=0.99. Good CO correlation of R²=0.84 was found, but a closer look atSV and HR indicates deficiency in SV correlation.

The transducer captured the acceleration signal from the sternum. Thissignal is filtered using a low pass filter at 50 Hz to remove highfrequency noises, since the heart motions are largely below thisfrequency. The signal was decimated by a factor of ten originally, andduring NICOM measurements was decimated by a factor of twenty. Theacceleration signal can be converted to a displacement signal before orafter the wavelet analysis. When NICOM measurements were taken, theacceleration signal was converted to displacement before computing thewavelet analysis. The number of decomposition levels and the waveletfilters are set before computing the decomposition. The packet selectionis done on the last decomposition level. The displacements of the heartcontractions are captured from the reconstructed displacement signal andaveraged over a period of one minute. Cardiac output is calculated andcompared to NICOM recordings. Use of a Genetic Algorithm may providebetter correlation to NICOM by selecting different packet set.

The initial recordings utilized an off the shelf Kistler accelerometerto measure chest displacement during heart contraction. The literatureon kineto-cardiograms justified the sternum recording location byshowing symmetrical inward motion [105]. Moreover, this location isjustified due to its physical structure; the accelerometer can be placedon the sternum where there is little muscle or fat and is found easily.The recordings at this location were found to be consistent when using apolynomial curve fit baseline subtraction and integrating the result tofind the displacement of the sternum. This analysis was performed onboth the velocity signal after integrating the acceleration signal andthe displacement signal after integrating the velocity signal.

Simultaneous ECG recordings confirmed the initial proposal that the mainnegative deviation of the displacement signal is due to ventricularcontraction. The simultaneous recordings also allowed us to identify theinfrasonic cardiac output deviation and distinguish inhaling cardiacfunction from exhaling cardiac function. Chest displacement duringinhaling is found to be greater than inhaling and is consisted withliterature [129, 130]. Polynomial curve fit base subtraction providedgood filtering tool, but requires significant computation power.Therefore, wavelet transform analysis is more suitable.

A custom made transducer was developed to improve chest infrasonicacceleration recordings due to heart contraction. This transducerprovided lower noise measurements with higher sensitivity. Wavelettransformation was able to eliminate noises from the recorded signal.The analysis was performed on ten heart beats on ten subjects andobserved that the variance on the ten displacement signals was about30%, but better correlation was achieved when BMI and other physicaldifferences were incorporated into the analysis; specifically, a 25%variance was obtained when factoring in Heart Rate, Chest volume andBMI. Better results can be obtained when more components are factored inand better signal analysis is performed.

Finally, a comparison between the infrasonic measurements and anapproved non-invasive Cardiac Output monitoring were undertaken.Comparison to the NICOM demonstrated good correlation, R² value of 0.72.

Example 3 Genetic Algorithm Optimization of Wavelet Packet Set

In the past, wavelet transform and GAs where combined yield results forthe problem set they were used. In this case, non-traditional waveletcomputation is employed, where just decomposition is performed and a GAis used to define a specific packet set which correlated best to theground truth. An initial method did not work and further investigationwas done to modify the algorithm to identify a desirable solution. Aseries of experiments was used to test the algorithm, and afterrestricting the correlation value R², the algorithm was able toconverge. The final algorithm was used to identify specific featuresthat correlate best to NICOM SV giving four subjects data.

In this application, a subcomponent of chest wall motion(seismocardiogram recording) is sought to be discovered which can beused to estimate a specific activity of the cardiac muscle, for example,stroke volume. The time consuming operation of waveform reconstructionis sought to be avoided, since the application calls for rapid responsefrom a resource limited device. Moreover, there is a potential toinvestigate for better correlation.

SV is estimated from chest acceleration, at the xiphoid process [108,111]. The approach involves performing multi-wavelet decompositions onthe acceleration data to generate a large pool of features from whichthe GA is used to select the best packet combination for predicting SV.The “ground truth” SV is obtained using electrical impedance basedCardiac Output Monitoring device NICOM.

Eshelman's CHC GA [147] search engine combined with the MMX crossoveroperator [148] identifies the best subset genes (i.e. packets), from amultiple filter bank. Since the goal was to minimize the number of genesto avoid over fitting and to reduce the computational costs of SVestimation, a Sub-Set-Size (SSS) variable was defined [149] and added tothe chromosome. FIG. 2 shows the general CHC pseudo code. The initialpopulation consists of random chromosomes, with each chromosomeconsisting of a variable number of genes, which are evaluated using afitness function. CHC's selection process, called cross-generationalrank selection, differs from many conventional GAs. Each parentchromosome has exactly one mating opportunity each generation, and theresulting offspring replace inferior parents. Mates are randomlyselected, but limited due to an incest prevention operator appliedbefore the offspring reproduction crossover operator. There is nomutation performed in the “inner loop.”

Only when it becomes clear that further crossovers are unlikely toadvance the search, a soft restart is performed, using mutation tointroduce substantial new diversity, but also retaining the bestindividual chromosome in the population.

The initial GA population is generated randomly using a uniformdistribution. In CHC two initial populations are produced and thechromosomes are evaluated, and the more fit chromosomes from bothpopulations are selected to become the next population. For allsubsequent generations, the pairs of parents (randomly mated) producetwo offspring and the selection operator produces the next parentgeneration by taking the best from the combined parents and offspringusing simple deterministic ranking.

Understanding the chromosome structure provides an understanding of theconnection between the feature-genes and the Sub-Set-Size (SSS) gene. Achromosome is defined as set of genes, and in this approach, the firstgene represents the SSS, that is, the number of genes that are expressedwhen a chromosome is evaluated (FIG. 3). The SSS gene takes on valuesbetween one and the maximum number of genes allowed; it tells theevaluation routine how many of the subsequent genes are to be used incomputing the fitness. The remaining genes represent inheritance from aprevious generation and may be passed on to future generations, but theydo not contribute to the fitness of the chromosome. It is possible thatthe offspring will express some of the parental “unexpressed” genesbecause their locations and the SSS will change. This chromosome formatwas designed by Schaffer et al. [149] and is used by the MMX_SSScrossover operator.

The expressed genes in a chromosome represent the magnitudes of a subsetof wavelet packets. The mathematics of the wavelet transform may befound elsewhere [125, 126, 127]; here discreet wavelet transforms (DWT)are used. In wavelet transform analysis, the focus is often the lowfrequency components. The time sequence is separated into twocomponents: low frequency components, called approximations, and highfrequency components, called details. Subsequent levels of decompositionare performed on the approximation coefficients; again separating thelow frequency components in to approximations and details. This processis repeated with entropy, energy, and/or a cost function being computedafter each level of decomposition as a means of optimizing thedecomposition process.

In cardiac analysis, the acceleration data may include numerous high andlow frequencies not associated with cardiac activity. High energy at thelow frequency is likely to be associated with breathing and whole bodymotion, while high frequency components may be associated withvocalization. Since the goal is to identify those components providingthe best correlation with SV, the full signal frequency spectrum wasinvestigated regardless of its computation cost, energy, or entropy.

Full tree decompositions, that is decomposition was performed on thedetails and approximation coefficients of each branch using one Motherwavelet (FIG. 4). This process was repeated for each of the motherwavelets utilized in the analysis. The first decomposition level isperformed on the time sequence producing the approximation coefficientsand details coefficients. The second decomposition level is performed onthe approximation coefficients and the details coefficients, andrepresents the first Approximation Approximation (AA), the firstApproximation Details (AD), the first Details Approximation (DA), andthe first Details Details (DD). Another decomposition level can performon the AA, AD, DA, and DD, and so on. The last decomposition levelconsists of set of filters called packets and serves as a filter bank.Full tree decomposition is applied with multiple mother waveletscreating multiple filter banks that expand the number of featuresallowing us to choose combinations of features that correlate best withSV. It may be possible to achieve better correlation with SV bycombining packets from different mother wavelets.

An ECG signal was used to capture the ventricles contraction time (QRScomplex), which serve to identify the time point to evaluate in thedecomposed acceleration signal. Four decomposition levels were performedwith six different mother wavelets providing ninety six differentfeatures associated with ventricle contraction acceleration energy.

The goal of utilizing the subset selection GA was to identify theminimal subset of features capable of accurately estimating the NICOMreported SVs. The NICOM provides thirty-second averages of SV and sowavelet decomposition was performed on each thirty seconds of recodedacceleration data. Eighty-five thirty-second averaged measurements weretaken sequentially using the NICOM, the ECG, and chest accelerations,from a single subject during both rest and during exercising. There werefive exercise periods for one hundred and fifty seconds at the sameintensity and five resting periods of two hundred and seventy seconds.Data was collected while subject was at rest, in upright position forfour hundred and fifty seconds. Multivariate regression was used tocorrelate the expressed chromosome genes ‘packets energy’ to theaveraged NICOM SV measurements. The R² value of the regression line wasused as the chromosome fitness value. The higher the R² value, thebetter the gene set predicts the NICOM SV.

In the CHC GA, the more fit chromosomes remain in the population untilthey are replaced by even more fit offspring. The fitness functionsreturns a two-vector, where one is the R² value, and the other is theSSS. The SSS is located at first chromosome gene. The vector selectionprocess works by comparing two chromosomes, a parent, A and an offspringB, if R²(A)>R²(B), then A is more fit (and vice versa). However, ifR²(A)=R²(B), then the chromosome with the smaller SSS is more fit. Ifthe SSS's are also equal, the parent is not replaced.

The crossover operator is responsible for offspring reproduction. Itconsists of three operators: Incest Prevention that decides if the twoparents can mate; Index Gene Crossover that is responsible forinheritance of both parents' genes to the offspring; SSS Recombinationcrossover that is responsible for setting the SSS gene of the offspringbased on both parents' SSS genes.

The crossover operator is applied to each random pair of parents. Thefirst step is to check the pair for incest prevention. Parents who aretoo closely related are prevented from mating. The distance between twochromosomes is simply the number of unique genes, in the leading portionof the chromosomes out to the furthest genes an offspring might inherit(the larger value of SSS genes from the two chromosomes). The initialvalue for the incest threshold is half of the maximum SSS, but it isdecremented whenever a generation occurs in which no offspring survive.When the incest threshold drops to zero, any chromosome may mate withany other, including a clone of itself. The incest threshold dropping tozero is one of the criteria used by CHC for halt and restart decisions.This incest prevention algorithm has been shown to effectively defeatgenetic drift [168]. It does this by promoting exploration, allowingonly mating among the more divergent chromosomes; as long as thisprocess is successful (offspring survive). Being self-adjusting, ittunes itself to problems of differing difficulties; when more fitoffspring are being produced, the threshold remains fixed, it drops onlywhen progress is not occurring.

GA research has shown that “respect” is an important property for acrossover operator [199, 200]. That is, if the parents share commongenes, it is important that the offspring should inherit them. TheMMX_SSS operator achieves this by first copying the common genes fromthe parents to the offspring. However, given that there is selectionpressure for smaller SSS gene values, this copy operation moves eachgene one position forward, to the left, in the offspring (FIG. 5). Thus,if a gene consistently contributes to fitness, it will slowly migratetowards the front of the chromosome, from grandparent, to parent, tochild. If a common gene is in the first, position adjacent to the SSSgene, it stays in the first position unless there is a common geneimmediately following, in which case they switch places. The uniquegenes from the two parents are randomly inserted into unused chromosomeslots in the offspring. These operations allow genes unexpressed in theparents to become expressed in the offspring.

The last step in crossover is to set the values for the SSS genes in theoffspring. This operation uses the “blend crossover” or BLX [149, 198].The SSS gene for each offspring is drawn uniformly randomly from aninterval defined by the SSS genes in the parents and their fitness (FIG.6).

The common genes from the two parents are copied one space to the leftin the offspring and the other genes are randomly inserted into theoffspring. In this example, the first parent common gene 51 switchesplaces first with gene 12 and then gene 87 in the next generation,(offspring one) because all three are common in both parents. Gene 69from the second parent stays in the first place since gene 41 is notcommon (offspring two). The rest of the genes, the “unique” genes, arecopied to a grab bag, the table on the right in FIG. 5. The twooffspring randomly pick the genes from this grab bag to fill up theplaces that are not filled. In this case, the first offspring selectsgenes 41, 50, 60, and 23, which have a gray background in the table andare underlined within the first gene. The second off spring picks thegenes with the white background, which are underlined in the secondgene. Blend crossover set the SSS gene.

The interval is first set to that bounded by the parental values, andthen extended by fifty percent in the direction of the more fit parent.In the example illustrated in FIG. 6, the parent with the smaller SSSgene value, being the more fit, biases evolution towards smaller SSSs.The opposite circumstance may also occur. In fact, this condition (themore fit parent being the one with the larger SSS), is what determinesthe limit for the computation of unique genes for incest prevention.

To evaluate this approach, a series of experiments were performed totest each aspect of the algorithm; these experiments are described insequential order. All experiments used seismocardiogram data from asingle subject obtained at rest and while undergoing mild exercise(light bike pedaling in an upright position with back support). Fourlevels of wavelet decomposition were performed on successivethirty-second time intervals. Six mother wavelets were utilized:Daubechies, Symlets, discrete Meyer, Coiflet, Biorthogonal, and reverseBiorthogonal. A “ground truth” SV value was obtained for eachthirty-second interval from the NICOM. This produced a data set with 96features (6×24), and a “true” SV for each of the 85 intervals that weremeasured. The maximum value of SSS was set to 32 assuming the GA couldobtain results with a subset much smaller than this. Thus, thechromosome contained 33 genes, one for SSS and 32 packet indexes. Forfitness to maximize, the R² from a linear regression of the packetsenergy to SV was selected. The population size was one hundred, thenumber of soft restarts was set to ten, with maximum zero accepts(restart condition) set to three.

The first experiment was directed toward achieving a maximum R² value,but showed little evidence of convergence. FIG. 7 presents several plotsthat characterize an experiment. All features appear to have beensampled throughout the run, but evolution was unable to eliminate manyfeatures so that a great many features remain in the populationthroughout the run (upper panel). In the middle panel, it can be seenthat within a few generations the population SSS gene has converged to32 (SSS max) indicating that no smaller value was competitive. In thelower panel, it can be seen that the population rapidly converging on anR² value at or near 0.988. Thus, the GA was unable to distinguish anyfeatures as any better than any others, and so used the maximum numberof features it was permitted (32). The GA discovered many combinationsof features that were able to predict SV nearly perfectly. In theexample experiments shown FIG. 7 the soft restarts are clearly seen asthe introduction of genetic diversity (upper two panels) and a drop inaverage and worst population fitness (lower panel). There are 10 softrestarts, as per the control parameter chosen.

FIG. 7 shows a characterization of experiment one. The X axis representsevolution time, either individual chromosome evaluation (upper panel) orgeneration (middle and lower panels). In the upper panel, the Y axis isthe individual features and there is a point for each index that waspresent in the population. The middle panel shows the SSS gene of allchromosomes within the population of each generation. The bottom plotshows evaluation of the best, worst, and average chromosomes within thepopulation of each generation.

Failure of convergence from experiment suggested verification of thealgorithm. A perfect solution was embedded in the data, to test thealgorithm's ability to discover it. A set of five features was selectedand their values “doctored” so that together they have perfect SVcorrelation. These features had indexes of 4, 31, 67, 80, and 92. (i.e.,widely distributed among the pool of features). The “doctored” featuresemerging as the only genes left in the population after about onehundred generations (FIG. 8). The SSS value (middle panel) first risestowards SSS-max as the combinations are sorted out, and then falls tothe value of five as selection pressure eliminates chromosomes with morefeatures than the five needed to achieve perfect performance.

FIG. 8 shows results from the second experiment, where the perfect(seeded) solution was found. The GA successfully detects the fivefeatures. The upper panel shows that as the number of generationincreases the seeded features are observed. As the number of generationincreases the chromosome with the same fitness value but smaller SSSgene survives, as the middle panel shows. A good solution is found atthe initialization stage as the lower panel shows.

FIG. 9 shows the number of times each feature was sampled over theentire run. The five doctored features were clearly preferred byevolution, but even the non-doctored features were each sampled severalhundred times while the GA sorted through the combinations to locate thegood one. Thus, the algorithm was observed to work as expected whenthere is one perfect solution among a sea of poor ones.

The algorithm was then challenged by perturbing the data with Gaussiannoise, where each feature is the original value plus twenty percentGaussian noise. The characteristic pattern of convergence failure wasobserved (FIG. 10). Without an easy-to-find superior set of features,the algorithm could only promote the largest possible subset (SSS max)of just about any of the noisy features. Each feature adding a tinyincrement to improve of R² value. It was hypothesized that the problemmight be the sensitivity of the original algorithm's hierarchicalselection scheme on any difference in the first dimension of fitness(R²), no matter how small. Selection for small subset size was nevertriggered because ties on R² virtually never occurred. This feature ofthe problem makes it different from previous applications of thisalgorithm that were on classification tasks, where the fitness wasusually to reduce classification errors or some similar metric. Theseerrors being modest discrete integers often resulted in ties.

To test the influence of R² on convergence, the number of significantdigits in the value of R² reported by the regression to the GA wasreduced. By setting this to two significant figures, it was declaredthat chromosomes that differ in R² by less than 0.01 should beconsidered equivalent, thereby allowing for ties and enabling the secondlevel of the hierarchical fitness selection to kick in. One may alsothink of this as an admission that an R² estimated from a sample ofcases must of necessity contain a certain amount of noise (samplingnoise rather than measurement noise); allowing the GA to over-exploitnoise provides no benefit. This strategy resulted in a return ofeffective performance even though the problem is now more difficultbecause of the noise perturbation (FIG. 11). Correspondingly, it nowtakes longer to locate the good feature set (FIG. 12). Perturbedfeatures 67 and 80 correlate better with SV and so are located earlierin the course of evolution. The features with weaker connections, 4, 31,and 92 were not included in the final result by the GA. Feature 31 hasbeen sampled more times since it still has decent connection to theresidual of SV once features 67, and 80 are included in the regression.However, other features 21 and 26 (plus their noise) provided betterresults and were chosen by the GA. The end result provided four genes21, 26, 67, and 80 with final R² of about 0.98.

Having an indication that over-precision was precluding convergence inthe presence of noise, the original dataset was rerun with R² reduced totwo significant digits. The patterns that indicate successful learningwas observed, and this time without the presence of doctored data. NowSSS evolves, first to 22 packets (in the first convergence, and the nexteight soft restarts) and finally to 21 and 22 in the last two softrestarts (FIG. 13 middle panel). The R² reached about 0.97 (FIG. 13lower panel), and the best packets can be seen emerging from the chaos(FIG. 13 upper panel).

FIGS. 14A-14C show chest acceleration recordings reported by variousinvestigators, illustrating that there is not a typical chestacceleration signal. MC: Mitral Valve Closure; IVC: Isovolumiccontraction; AO: Aortic valve opening; RE: Rapid ejection; AC: Aorticvalve closure; MO: Mitral valve opening; RF: Rapid filling; AS: Atrialsystole.

The CHC genetic algorithm with the MMX_SSS crossover operator haspreviously been applied to the task of feature selection inbioinformatics classification tasks. This algorithm may also beapplicable to feature subset selection tasks in time series dataprocessing, but the use of a high-precision first fitness metric such asR², seems to require a judicious reduction in significant digitsprovided to the GA in order to induce ties so that the second metric(SSS) may become active. In classification tasks, ties are common sincecounts of classification errors have a limited dynamic range. This showsthat a tradeoff between sensitivity to small improvements in accuracyand the desire for small subsets is appropriate.

This algorithm can be applied to selecting high performance, small setof signal features that can be combined to yield accurate metrics ofsome signal content. Finding specific mother wavelet packets that can becombined at the energy level without full waveform reconstruction canenable computationally inexpensive ways to extract information from timeseries data.

The CHC genetic algorithm with the MMX_SSS cross-over operator haspreviously been applied to the task of feature selection inbioinformatics classification tasks. Evidence is provided that thisalgorithm may also be applicable to feature subset selection tasks intime series data processing, but the use of a high-precision firstfitness metric such as R², seems to require a judicious reduction insignificant digits provided to the GA in order to induce ties so thatthe second metric (SSS) may be-come active. In classification tasks,ties are common since counts of classification errors have a limiteddynamic range. This work seems to show that a tradeoff may be neededbetween sensitivity to small improvements in accuracy and the desire forsmall subsets.

The last experiment yielded good correlation and as results the samealgorithm and settings are used in this case to find a solution for foursubjects. The filter bank was expanded to 640 features derived fromdifferent mother wavelets and another six features derived from subjectphysical measurements (Chest volume, Chest circumference, height,weight, BMI, BSA). The GA population size was increased to 200, allowingfarther exploration of the landscape for the optimal solution. Similarto the previous experiment FIG. 8 shows the results from a run where 29features (middle panel) are identified for a solution, R² of 0.89 (lowerpanel). FIG. 9, shows the features which are most occurring through theentire run.

Example 4

Finding the contraction time location using the acceleration signal ischallenging compared to extraction from an ECG signal. As describedabove, the ECG R-wave was used to define the contraction time locationto extract values from the filter set using a regression line to computethe SV. However, cardiac parameters including the contraction time, canalso be estimated using only an accelerometer. GAs are also used to finda global solution. A computationally efficient method is provided.

Extracting the timing of heart contraction from acceleration data at thechest wall using a standardized algorithm for all subjects ischallenging, because the chest acceleration signal is individual basedon body characteristics, since each individual chest vibratesdifferently when the heart contracts. Moreover, the chest vibrations dueto the heart contraction are affected by breathing motions, speech andother motions. The subject heart acceleration may also vary from oneheart beat to another. The ECG R wave is clearly distinguished in allsubjects where the first heart sound within the acceleration signal ofeach subject varies in amplitude.

The low pass filter was set to 50 Hertz and the high pass filter was setto 2 Hertz.

The ECG QRS complex function was used to extract packet information atthe heart contraction time location, as the ground truth for heartcontraction time location. Based on physiological assumptions, a timesegment was chosen after the ECG contraction time location to serve asthe window of opportunity for capturing the heart contraction timelocation via acceleration data. True Positive (TP) detection isconsidered as heart contraction detection based on the acceleration datain this window. Otherwise, if no heart contraction is detected a FalseNegative (FN) accrues. If a heart contraction is detected outside of thewindow, the detection is considered as False Positive (FP).

The heart mechanical activity follows the electrical activity. The timelag of the heart contraction and accelerometer electrical circuit afterthe ECG R-wave is about 50 milliseconds. The effective time lag isdependent on filter delay. Since the data was analyzed at 100 Hertz andfour decomposition levels performed, the total time scaled energyobservation of a packet per data point is 160 milliseconds. Therefore,the window in which a TP has occurred is equivalent to the same timescale window following the ECG R-wave. Optimal detection means that allheart contraction time locations from the acceleration signal arelocated in the TP windows, and there is no heart contraction detectionelsewhere. The Sensitivity and the Positive predictive value weremeasured and calculated.

Two approaches were investigated to detect heart contraction from theacceleration signal; the Discreet Wavelet Transform (DWT), and theContinuous Wavelet Transform (CWT). The CWT calls for more redundancyand may provide more features which allows easier detection. The DWTcalls for better noise elimination, where signal components can beeliminated. Both approaches use a detection function and evaluationfunction which compare the detected contraction time location to the ECGQRS time stamps. In general, the DWT convolves the input signal withspecific filter coefficients and decimates the signal by half toeliminate redundancy. After one level of decomposition the approximatedsignal is half of the input signal length. The next decomposition willconvolve the approximated signal against the same mother wavelet lowpass filter coefficients. The second decomposition level investigates anarrower band of low frequencies than the first decomposition. Mostlikely, the best frequency detection occurs when the mother waveletfilter coefficients represent the input signal. In this case, thathappens at higher a decomposition level, when the mother wavelet issimilar in shape to the input signal.

The second approach is to use the CWT to capture information which theDWT may miss. The CWT calls for redundancy since the frequency componentof the signal is redundant after performing convolution. The CWT usesthe actual mother wavelet coefficients as opposed to the DWT that usesthe Multi-Resolution Approximation (MRA) equation. As the scalingfunction increases the number of the mother wavelet coefficientsincreases. In general, to capture the desired signal information themother wavelet shape should match the desired information shape (i.e.similar frequencies) and this is done by choosing the correct scaling.

Both CWT and DWT are good filtering tools. They are similar approaches,but have different advantages and disadvantages. Since, with the DWTmultiple decomposition levels are available, the option of sharperfiltering to capture specific frequency components is possible, noise isbetter reduced than with the CWT. The CWT does not compress the inputsignal for sharper filtering. Instead the mother wavelet “stretches”,requiring more computations than the DWT, and so redundancy of thefrequency components may provide better feature detection.

The output data from the DWT brute force and CWT brute force functionswere processed via a detection function that detects the heartcontraction time location. The contraction detection function output isthen evaluated using the evaluation function discussed above, based onthe ECG QRS heart contraction time location. In one embodiment, afunction divided the processed signal to many segments or “windows”.Each window was evaluated by its maximum energy peak which was comparedto an average threshold number. The average threshold was set to half ofthe averaged last ten peaks. After the CWT threshold algorithm wastuned, each threshold window then consisted of the positive segments ofthe CWT threshold output.

The DWT brute force algorithm evaluates all the possibilities to computea solution for heart contraction time stamp. Each Mother wavelet packetcombination set is evaluated. In this case, there are two loops. Thefirst one changes the mother wavelet selection and the second changesthe packets combination selection. In each evaluation the input signalis decomposed to a three decomposition level, packets are selected forreconstruction, and the reconstructed signal is processed by acomputational function before it is evaluated by the peak detection andevaluation functions. Each choice of MW and packet combination wasstored in a chromosome structure. The selected MW is at the firstposition, the computational function is at the second position, and thelast eight positions are occupied by packet reconstruction selection.Each MW was assigned a number which was parsed using a parsing function.The Computational Function (CF) was set prior to the run and was appliedon each MW packet combination. The packet combination used eightcharacters of ones and zeroes to define the selected packets forreconstruction; one selects the packet and zero ignored the packet.

The maximum detection from the brute force run was about 97 percent, butthe second heart sound was also sometimes counted as a contractionlocation. Therefore, the detection false positive rate was about 50percent and the calculated heart rate was double the measured heartrate.

Good results were obtained using two subjects. However, when theanalysis was run on a third subject it failed to detect the heartcontraction time, because the threshold function eliminated the heartconstruction segment. Similar frequencies where associated with thethird subject heart construction, first heart sound, and the secondheart sound. Therefore, it was concluded that a Genetic Algorithm wasneeded to generalize an algorithm to fit all subjects.

Example 5

A Genetic Algorithm can be a useful tool to discover the global optimasolution or a solution which is close to it in a large landscape. Sincethere are deviations among subjects, a large population of subjects isrequired to formulate a generalized algorithm, e.g., four females andeight males. Basic information was collected from each subject (likeheight, weight, age, and etc.), followed by collecting acceleration datafor ten minutes while the subject was in a supine position, ten minuteswhile subject was in an upright position, four minutes while subject wasin an upright position and talking. In the following GA detections, DWTand CWT, only three minutes of the male subjects' data was analyzedwhile in an upright position. Computing multiple filters and evaluatingthe solution was very computationally expensive. Therefore, selecting aportion of data from each subject that is sufficient to representdeviation within the full data spectrum (all subjects) is expedient.Three minutes were selected as a sampling duration, to record at least ahundred heart beats for each subject to have confidence in the solution.Since data of one subject were not collected correctly, it wasdiscarded. A total of seven male subjects in an upright position andthree minutes of recording while sitting quietly were analyzed where theECG signal was clean of noise and the R wave was fully detected.

A chromosome structure was provided to evaluate the selected packets,MW, Computation Function (CF), and threshold function. Previously, theCF and threshold function were set to be constant. Here, the GA choosesthe best threshold function and CF to maximize detection. Also, multiplewavelet transforms were combined to provide better detection by the GA.The CHC GA was used again because of its robustness. Here, the crossoveroperator and chromosome structure were modified. An example chromosomeprovides two MWs at two decomposition levels. MWa has a thresholdfunction THa and corresponding packets aB0-aB3. MWb has a thresholdfunction THb and corresponding packets bB0-bB3. The CF computes theoutput combination for the two.

The computation function combines and performs mathematical operationson each wavelet transform. Here, five functions were available to eachchromosome. Those functions were chosen based on some assumptions andfor being different from each other. Therefore, a function that providesa good result within the Evaluation Function will rise quickly andeliminate others. Each function does element operation on MW Signals(MWS) after decomposition, thresholding, and reconstruction.

The threshold function performs mathematical computations on thedecomposed wavelet transform before reconstruction. The purpose of thisfunction is to eliminate noise and focus on the features that areassociated with the heart contraction. The packets to be reconstructedare equal to a function of the decomposed packets. In some cases, athreshold value is set at the beginning of the run to save searchingtime.

The CHC GA was used again to converge to a near-global optimum solution.However, a different crossover was used to generate offspring sincechromosomes had a different structure. In the reproduction process a bitrepresentation was used for the packet selection and a numericalrepresentation for the MW, threshold, and CF representation. The HUX(Half Uniform crossover) was used for packet selection crossover, sinceit has general been observed to perform well when using bit-wiseoperations. The common genes transfer to the offspring and theirlocation do not change oppose to SSS_MMX crossover, where the commongenes moves one step towards the beginning of the chromosome. The restof the genes are processed as follows, where half of the unique genesare chosen randomly, line under, to change their state (switch to theopposed binary state.)

The blend crossover (BLX) crossover was used on the MW, threshold, andCF genes. This crossover was used before with the SSS_MMX crossover onthe subset size gene. The BLX crossover formula is given below whereGene Parent one (GP1) is smaller than Gene Parent two (GP2).

If the upper bound of the Interval is greater than the number offeatures, it is set to be equal to the number of features. If theInterval lower bound is smaller than one, it set to one. Gene Parent one(GP1) and Gene Parent Two (GP2) represent the rage which is extended by50 percent to the direction of the more fit parent GP2, where a randomgene can be selected.

The DWT GA evaluation function was similar to the brute force DWT and itincluded many function in it. The evaluation function reads thechromosome structure and sets the packet selection parameters using theparse function from the brute force DWT evaluation to define the MWfunction. DWT decomposition is computed, then the threshold function iscomputed on the selected packets, and the waveform is reconstructed. Thecost to compute the DWT is calculated using the cost function. Thecomputation function (CF) does element mathematical computation whichprovides better detection. The output from the CF is then multiplied byan initial CWT threshold function which determines a vague window of thefirst heart sound time segment. This window is used to eliminate thesecond heart sound. The processed waveform is then transferred to a peakdetection function which determines the contraction time location. Thosetime locations are compared to the ground truth ECG signal and TP, FP,FN are calculated. A sigmoid evaluation function was computed which alsohas been used to evaluate each chromosome. Better results were foundusing the original evaluation function.

The main purpose of this algorithm is to isolate the first majoracceleration deviation from the second one (in phonocardiogram, firstheart sound S1 from the second heart sound S2). As a result, thisalgorithm is able also to detect subject heart rate, number of beats perminute. The chest acceleration signal is more challenging than the ECGfor heartbeat detection, since each individual chest vibratesdifferently when the heart contracts. Moreover, the chest vibrations dueto the heart contraction are affected by breathing motions, speech andother motions. This function is used after the brute force approacheshad difficulty in isolating the heart contraction phase from therelaxation phase due to heart valves closing sounds.

The CWT threshold function defines the segments to be analyzed. Itstarts by initializing the HR to 60 beats per minute. The CWT scaling iscalculated based on the HR and different scaling is selected based onthe HR.

The selected scale is used to scale Daubechies five MW which selects awindow where contraction occurs. Originally, the DWT GA detected twiceas many heart contractions as were measured. The Evaluation function wasmodified many times to achieve better results but the DWT GA was notable to provide a good solution since HR is so different from onesubject to another. The positive predictive values were around fiftypercent. Since this function depended on the HR, it solved this issue.Heart rate is measured by counting the number of threshold windows perminute, and is used is scale the CWT function accordingly. The sigmoidevaluation function uses the ECG signal to generate a sigmoid likefunction around a small window after the heart contraction occurred.

A heart contraction time location at this window will result in nopenalty. If the detection occurred at the edge of the window, a smallpenalty is added. If detection occurred outside of the window the fullpenalty is added. If no detection occurred, a no-detection penalty isadded, which is greater than a bad detection penalty. The windowconsists of both the sigmoid equation and its flipped version where thevariable X starts from −2 to HWS, (Half Window Size), for smoothingpurposes, using the equation above. After the whole signal is analyzed,the penalties are added. The GA is minimizing the sigmoid function,where the most fit chromosome has the smallest penalty.

The solution which is provided here resulted from many iteration andmodification of the DWT GA, evaluation function, chromosome structure,and more. On average a full run takes several days. Note that thisoptimization is not performed at the time of use in the target system,and therefore time for optimization is not a limiting factor.

In this case, the search was restricted to receive an answer in a week.The number of chromosomes in a population was set to fifty and thenumber of MWs functions was set to one at five levels of decompositions.Data of three minutes from each of the seven subjects was used tocorrelate the heart contraction time location. The DWT parse functionwas used again and was modified to a smaller number of MWs.

After the second soft restart, the GA was not able to converge to afinal solution until it hit the maximum number of generations. The GAwas able to identify a MW function that best suits the converged packetcombination, evaluation type, and threshold function type. This runincluded four evaluation functions and seven threshold functions.

Note that, for any given subject, if calibration data is available, suchas CO from a NICOM unit, then the algorithm may be tuned to thatspecific person.

The evaluation function is intended to maximize the detection;therefore, more weight was given to the detection of a heart contractiontime location than to wrong time location detection. During the run thesigmoid function and the evaluation function were used. The evaluationfunction was modified to specifically weight sensitivity and positivepredictive values.

The evaluation of the best chromosome from this run was detection(sensitivity) of 98.62%, and positive predictive value of 98.56%. Thatmeans that the detection was mostly at the right time and at the rightlocation. This solution is sufficient to determine CO and average SV.Note that the “gold standard”, thermo-dilution has ˜80% accuracy andNICOM has ˜65% correlation. Missing a heartbeat in a minute is at most2% from 100% detection. Therefore, the provided solution is useful andsufficient for most purposes.

One of the key components is to eliminate the low frequencies from thecollected data since they provide an offset noise. This solutioneliminates the lowest packet which includes those frequencies, andprovides a satisfactory solution. Moreover, this solution eliminatesmore than half of the packets and those packets are next to each other,reducing computational cost.

A final goal was to create a prototype that uses a low powermicrocontroller. The less computation required, the less power isrequired, the smaller the microcontroller can be, and longer monitoringis available. Therefore, the optimized solution provides a good solutionto detect the heart time contraction.

Example 6

A second method to determine heart contraction time location is theContinuous Wavelet Transform (CWT). The CHC GA was used to determine thebest filter set to extract the heart construction time location. Similarto the DWT GA, a computation function was used. However, the computationfunction was set to be constant and was changed manually, from one runto another. Two different types of Gas were performed. In the first GA,the evaluation function was a regression line based on the chromosomegenes, and the second GA was a convolution-based approach for each ofthe chromosome genes. In the first CWT GA, the features were a result ofthe CWT output using multiple scaling and MWs. A GA as discussed aboveand its crossover were used to determine the best filter set thatprovided the optimal heart contraction time location from theacceleration data based on the ground truth, the ECG data. The sameevaluation function as the DWT GA was used to evaluate each chromosome.

This GA was run on a server farm with 24 cores, to speed up the GAprocess. The run took three days to converge to a solution with multiplesoft restarts. Matlab, CWT function was used to compute the data base(features) before the GA process. Then, the CWT GA searches for theoptimal solution within the data base. Each of the CFs used in bruteforce approach where used.

This GA offered two appealing solutions. The first solution has bettersensitivity where the second has better positive predictive value. Thefirst solution used fewer filters than the second solution. The firstsolution had a sensitivity of 0.9862 and positive predictive values of0.9869 and performed element multiplication of the selected filters. Thesolution consisted of two filters which is a reasonable solution for amicrocontroller with limited computational power. In both cases, themaximum SSS was set to sixteen genes, which provided a good search base,where the GA was able to converge to a smaller SSS. The first solutionwas able to converge on the optimal solution five times.

In some cases, the GA is not able to converge. In this case, on thefifth soft restart the GA was not able to converge which resulted inreaching to the maximum number of generations (10,000).

This first solution provides two features (filters) which togetherprovide the optimal solution. Those two features were sampled more oftenthan the rest of the features, which indicates strong connectionsbetween them.

The second solution consisted of three filters and provided a betterpositive predictive value than the first solution. However, it has lowersensitivity. Here, summation of each of the filtered signals wasperformed, which used more filters by doubling the scaling of each MW.Also, in this solution, the filters (features) which contribute to theoptimal solution were sampled frequently, but not all were sampled themost. The features with the strongest connection rose first, but thefeatures that contribute to the global solution, which took generationsto evolve, were not necessarily sampled more often. In this case,feature 686 was sampled more often than feature 6191 which was used inthe global optima solution.

The two solutions provided satisfactory results, where sensitivity andpositive predictive values were highly correlated to the ground truthECG contraction time location. Both solutions used few features enablingthe required computations on a small microcontroller.

In some cases, it is common to convolve two or more filters to observespecific frequencies and eliminate noise. Therefore, the same method wasemployed here, and a Convolution GA created. This GA convolves all thefilters within a chromosome based on the subset size gene, allowingmultiple convolutions to be performed and evaluated, using the same CWTfilters. Chromosomes with many filters do not survive due to theconvolution outcome.

The initial brute force approach did not result in a satisfactorysolution. The DWT approach was not able to determine a good solution,but was not run with a large number of features due to computation time.The CWT approach provided a good solution for two subjects, but was notable to generalize the solution to more subjects. Also, like the DWTapproach small numbers of features were tested due to computation time.It is important to notice that the run of each approach took more than aday to compute. Therefore, using a GA to search for a solution in a muchlarger landscape seems to be the right approach to continue.

Example 7

An Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) microcontroller operating using thembed.org environment were selected for fast prototyping and performance.

The sensitive and low noise Silicon Design Model 1221 accelerometer wasused throughout the early experiments, which allowed accurate recordingsand identify desired features within the acceleration signal. The signalwas processed using the Bio-pack M-150 data acquisition system, whichhas 24-bit precision analog to digital converter. It was found thatlower precision would suffice, and therefore a 16 bit ADC could be used.At least a 32 bit word and 16 bit precision should be used in thecalculations.

A microcontroller consists of a microprocessor, memory, clockoscillator, and input and output capabilities. Therefore, it is possibleto use it without extra components comparing. As opposed to ASIC, MCUsare not customable, and have functionality limitations. MCUs performonly digital computations, and so an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC)is necessary as an input device to read analog signals. MCUs are out ofthe box working solutions which are provided with datasheet, drivers andcode examples. They are good in implementing difficult algorithms. Theirmain advantage is low upfront cost, ease of programming (usuallyprogrammed in C/C++), and relative low power consumption. In the pastfew years ARM (Advanced RISC (reduced instruction set computer)Machines), has acquired big portion of the MCU market. This technologyis wildly used in embedded devices such as smart phones, which mayinclude Bluetooth, WI-FI, LCD or OLED display, variety of physicalsensors, etc. A 32-bit (or higher) processor is preferred to compute thealgorithm.

The Mbed HDK supports onboard components and off board components,allows flexible rapid prototyping. A wireless communication link betweenthe device and a smart phone, computer, or other readout device issupported. It supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G communications, whichare commonly available on both computers and smart phones.

The first assessment of the MCU was to check its potential to executethe required calculations in the time available between incomingsamples. The most straightforward and quickest approach to test this wasto measure how much time does it takes to perform a specific task. Themain core of the computation is performing repetitive convolution on theinput signal. The signal is filtered by multiple filters and specificfeatures are weighted and combined to generate a SV value. Therefore,the first assessment was to measure the MCU time span required tocompute the twelve different filters.

Acceleration data was collected from the MCU and the necessary filteringcomputed. 3.5 seconds of data were collected, and the MCU computationtime span for the twelve filters obtained. The computation time forthose filters took 285 milliseconds, which indicated that approximately8% of the MCU is utilized. In this case the MCU will be in sleep modeninety present 90% of the time when performing live computations, andwill be able to compute all the required calculations on time.Alternately, the MCU program can be ten times more complicated anddemanding before the MCU will have difficulty executing it in the timeallotted.

The solution was tested using floating point calculations and with afilter set solution. Therefore, another GA run limiting the chromosomemaximum SSS to 16 genes was conducted, resulting in 14 filters; wherethe longest filter consisted of 350 coefficients. Five seconds of datawere collected and the convolution computed on the fly for each sampleddata point. Each time the microcontroller sampled a new value (100 Hzsampling rate), it computed all 14 filters. As result, the convolutionalgorithm is computed on each new data point using previously collecteddata for calculations. The MCU was configured to zero pad to allowcalculation on the initial data points. The MCU output calculations werecompared to a Matlab convolution function, to test the accuracy of thecomputations. Since the convolution is performed every 10 millisecondson each new data point, the computations are finished at 500 data points(i.e. 5 seconds) and the convolution was not continued on the paddedsection. The MCU was able to compute all calculations in 6.6milliseconds, on average, which still permits performance of allnecessary computations in the allotted time.

The maximum amount of time it takes MCU to complete the wholecomputation was evaluated. The wavelet computations are performed inreal time on each new second data point. Therefore, at every sixteenthdata point, all four decomposition levels are performed. The data issampled at 100 Hz for five seconds, providing 31 output values. Theaverage computation time was 3.3 milliseconds, providing a window of 6.7milliseconds for further computations. The first decomposition isperformed on six data points and the second decomposition is performedon six output values from the first decomposition. 60% of the MCU RAMand 20% of its flash, were consumed, which does not leave much room toperform any additional computations. Two algorithms (one for heartcontraction timing and one for stroke volume) need to be performed onthe MCU. Therefore, the second algorithm was separately programmed andtested for MCU performance on this additional algorithm before makingany hardware decisions. Note that further optimization may reduce memoryfootprint, and the two algorithms may run sequentially, and thereforeuse the same physical memory space at different times.

After the filter computations were verified, the accelerationinformation values were verified following decimation. If the Low Pass(LP) filter is convolved with the High Pass (HP), a new filter iscreated and if the input signal is convolved with the new filter anddecimated by four, in theory, this should result in the same value as iftwo wavelet decompositions were performed [174]. The first decompositionis on the input signal providing the approximations of the Low Pass (LP)filter and the second decomposition provides the details of the HighPass (HP) filter. This theory was tested but failed to providesatisfactory results, since the final values from the two approaches didnot fully match.

Our second approach to compute an efficient algorithm was to perform thedecomposition path for each filter. In this way there are fewercomputations since a convolution is performed on every second data pointfrom the input level since each result is decimated by two. For example,the LP filter is computed on every second data point which is equivalentto applying it on the input signal and then decimating the output bytwo. The same is done on the HP filter where convolution is performed onevery second data point of the LP filter output. The waveletcomputations are performed in real time on each new second data point.

Therefore, at every sixteenth data point, all four decomposition levelsare performed. Samples are taken at 100 Hz for five seconds, providing31 output values. The average computation time was 3.3 milliseconds,providing a window of 6.7 milliseconds for further computations. Thedata is zero padded at the initialization stage, and later convolutionperformed where the number of data points is equal to the filter length.The first decomposition is performed on six data points and the seconddecomposition is performed on six output values from the firstdecomposition.

The heat rate detection algorithm is computed by the Continuous WaveletTransform (CWT). The computations are done using cyclic convolution withthe “true” Mother wavelets coefficients. This algorithm has two stages.The first stage is adaptive threshold windowing. This program requires60% of the flash memory and about 80% of the RAM and does not leave muchroom to add more computations. To test the full program for detectingheart rate, the calculation was performed for ten seconds and thenrecorded the input and output signal for four seconds, where the totalcomputation time was fourteen seconds. The average calculation time forthe four seconds data was about 4.5 milliseconds, so the program can becomputed in the time available between each new data point when datacollection is at 100 Hertz.

The SV algorithm was programmed first and modified it to provide thesame readings as the Matlab algorithm. The final results showed that thealgorithm require 3.5 milliseconds to compute and occupies 60% of theRAM and 20% of the flash memory. The HR algorithm occupies 80% of theRAM and 60% of the flash memory. Both algorithms, therefore, cannot runat the same time on the board since both together exceed the amount ofmemory available on the Freedom-KL25Z evaluation board. The sub programwhich merges the output of the SV and HR algorithms requires littlecomputation, but will still increase the amount of memory required by10% of the available memory. Therefore, a new evaluation board withgreater RAM and flash memory would be required to implement the fullalgorithm.

The drive behind minimizing computation time and filter sets was tocreate a small device which was portable (i.e. battery operated) and sowould have limited computation capabilities. Different hardware typeswere investigated, including ASIC, FPGA, DSP and MCU, the MCU approachwas determined the best fit for this application based on powerconsumption, acceptable computation power, speed to market, developmentease, and feature flexibility. Moreover, an ARM based MCU with highperformance and low power consumption, and which offered upwardscompatibility, was preferred. An open source development platform wasemployed since it was tested by name users and supported multiplecomponents allowing for rapid prototyping.

The SV and HR algorithms were tested separately, and both were shown tocompute in less than half of the available time on the target MCU.Therefore, both algorithms together could be computed in less than tenmilliseconds, allowing a 100 Hz sampling rate. However, the code toimplement both algorithms could not fit together on the target MCU, andan alternative target MCU is needed which includes more RAM to hold theentire program.

It has been shown that the FRDM-KL25Z evaluation board is sufficientlyfast to make the necessary computations in less than 10 ms, however, itwould not be possible to compute both HR and SV algorithmssimultaneously due to insufficient memory resources on this board.FRDM-KL46Z is an upper level board in the same family as the FRDM-KL25Z,with a built in 16 bit ADC and draws just 6 mA at full working state.The NXP LPC1768 has a 12 bit, 1 Megasample per second ADC, and draws 42mA, but it runs at 96 MHz which would allow it to compute the requiredcalculations faster, and then go into sleep mode to save power. A 16+bit ADC is preferred, but techniques, such as subranging, dithering, andthe like, can be used to increase the effective number of bits,especially when the required data acquisition rate is well below thesampling rate.

During initial analysis, it was assumed that observation of respirationrate since would not be possible, due to high-pass analog filtering todecrease “noise” in the frequency range of respiration (i.e. below a fewHz). However, the first integration for finding chest velocity showsthat the low respiration frequency was observed to contributesignificantly to the signal in the SV analysis. Therefore, the systemcan readily determine and output respiratory motion parameters,including respiratory rate. Because CO is influenced by breathing,incorporating breathing rate into the CO calculation may significantlyimprove the accuracy of the CO estimates.

The invention may be used as a method, system or apparatus, asprogramming codes for performing the stated functions and theirequivalents on programmable machines, and the like. The aspects of theinvention are intended to be separable, and may be implemented incombination, subcombination, and with various permutations ofembodiments. Therefore, the various disclosure herein, including thatwhich is represented by acknowledged prior art, may be combined,subcombined and permuted in accordance with the teachings hereof,without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

All references cited herein are expressly incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACG Apex-CardioGram AM Amplitude Modulation ARMAdvanced RISC Machines ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit AVAtrioVentricular BCG BallistoCardioGram BLX Blend Crossover BMI BodyMass Index BP Blood Pressure BPM Beats Per Minute BSA Body Surface AreaCAM Complementary and Alternative Medical CHC Cross generation rankselection, HUX, Cataclysmic mutation CI Cardiac Index CKGCardioKymoGraphy CO Cardiac Output CPU Central Processing Unit CTComputed Tomography CVD CardioVascular Disease CWT Continuous WaveletTransform DFT Discrete Fourier Transform DSP Digital Signal ProcessorDWT Discreet Wavelet Transform EC Evolutionary Computations ECGElectroCardioGram EE Exhaustive Enumeration EEG ElectroEncephaloGraphyEMG ElectroMyoGraphy EP Evolutionary Programing ES Evolution StrategiesET Ejection Time FDA Food and Drug Administration FFT Fast FourierTransform FIR Finite Impulse Response FN False Negative FP FalsePositive FPGA Field Programmable Gate Array GA Genetic Algorithm GPGenetic Programing HC Hill Climber HDK Hardware Development Kit HR HeartRate HUX Half Uniform crossover IC Integrated Circuit ICT IsometricContraction Time ICU Intensive Care Unit IDE Integrated Developerenvironment IHC Iterated Hill Climbers KCG KinetoCardioGram MCUMicroController Unit MEMS MicroElectroMechanical systems MIPS MillionInstructions Per-Second MMG MechanoMyoGraphy MRI Magnetic ResonanceImaging MW Mother Wavelet NASA National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration NICOM Non-Invasive Cardiac Output Monitoring ODE Officeof Device Evaluation OOP Out Of Pocket PAC Pulmonary Artery Catheter PCGPhonoCardioGram RAM Random Access Memory RISC Reduced Instruction SetComputer RRR Random Respectful Recombination RS Random Search SASimulated Annealing SCG SeismoCardioGram SDK Software Development KitSSS SubSet Size STFT Short Time Fourier Transform SV Stroke Volume TEBThoracic Electrical Bio-impedance TP True Positive VbCG VibroCardioGramVET Ventricle Ejection Time

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for computing cardiac stroke volume of asubject, comprising: obtaining parameters of a wavelet packet functionand basing the parameters on calibration data from a plurality ofmembers of a population, the wavelet packet function relatinginformation from a transducer representing chest wall movementsassociated with a respective heartbeat to cardiac stroke volume of therespective heartbeat; measuring chest wall movements of the subject;performing a wavelet transform on the measured chest wall movements ofthe subject to produce a set of wavelet transformed data; determining,from the wavelet transformed data and the parameters of the waveletpacket function, at least a cardiac stroke volume of the respectiveheartbeat for the subject; and one of (a) displaying on a displaydevice, and (b) controlling a therapeutic cardiac device, based on atleast one of (i) the determined cardiac stroke volume, and (ii) a valuecalculated from the determined cardiac stroke volume.
 2. A system forcomputing a cardiac performance, comprising: a display device configuredto present a display; a transducer configured to sense chest wallmovements of a subject and to produce a transducer output representingthe sensed chest wall movements; a memory storing parameters of awavelet packet function, the stored parameters being based oncalibration data from a plurality of members of a population, thewavelet packet function relating sensed chest wall movements associatedwith a respective heartbeat to cardiac stroke volume of the respectiveheartbeat at least one automated processor, configured to: retrieve,from the memory, stored parameters of the wavelet packet function;perform a wavelet transform on the sensed chest wall movements; andcalculate at least a cardiac stroke volume estimate of the respectiveheartbeat from the wavelet transformed sensed chest wall movements andthe parameters, using the retrieved parameters for the wavelet packetfunction; and one of: (a) display information selectively dependent onthe cardiac stroke volume estimate to the display device, forpresentation to a user, and (b) control a therapeutic cardiac medicaldevice selectively dependent on the cardiac stroke volume estimate. 3.The system according to claim 2, wherein the chest wall movements aresensed as vibrations comprising at least frequencies over the range of5-25 Hz.
 4. The system according to claim 2, wherein the transducercomprises an accelerometer.
 5. The system according to claim 2, whereinthe at least one automated processor is further configured to determineat least one of a heart contraction timing and a heart contractiontiming variability, based on the sensed chest wall movements.
 6. Thesystem according to claim 2, wherein the at least one automatedprocessor is further configured to determine a heart rate, and todetermine a cardiac output, based on at least the determined heart rateand the calculated cardiac stroke volume.
 7. The system according toclaim 2, wherein the wavelet transform employs at least two differentwavelet decomposition paths, each respective wavelet decomposition pathemploying a respectively different type of wavelet packet, and thewavelet packet function comprises a set of wavelet packet parametersapplied to a subset of the different types of wavelet packets of the atleast two different wavelet decomposition paths.
 8. The system accordingto claim 7, wherein the wavelet packet function is a genetic algorithmoptimized, low computational complexity wavelet packet function,employing parameter coefficients for terms of the at least two differentwavelet decomposition paths, adapted to produce the calculated cardiacstroke volume having a high correspondence with a benchmark.
 9. Thesystem according to claim 2, wherein the at least one automatedprocessor is further configured to employ at least one of anevolutionary algorithm and a genetic algorithm to define the parametersof an optimal wavelet packet function which optimizes both a correlationof the cardiac stroke volume with a benchmark, and a computationalcomplexity of the wavelet packet function.
 10. The system according toclaim 2, wherein the calibration data from the plurality of humanscomprises sensed chest wall movements and measured cardiac output forthe plurality of humans, and wherein the wavelet packet function is anoptimal wavelet packet function with respect to at least the calibrationdata, and the at least one automated processor is further configured todetermine: a heart contraction timing based on the sensed chest wallmovements, and a cardiac output as a function of the determined thestroke volume and heart contraction timing.
 11. The system according toclaim 2, wherein the wavelet transform comprises a plurality ofdifferent mother wavelet types, in a plurality of decomposition paths,in a plurality of different filters at different frequencies.
 12. Thesystem according to claim 2, wherein the transducer comprises anaccelerometer configured to be placed on the xiphoid process of thesternum.
 13. The system according to claim 2, wherein at least one bodycharacteristic of the subject is stored in the memory, and the at leastone automated processor is further configured to: calculate anon-normalized cardiac output value based on the sensed chest wallmovements of the subject; store the non-normalized cardiac output valuein the memory; communicate the non-normalized cardiac output valuethrough a communication port; and normalize the non-normalized cardiacoutput value according to the at least one body characteristic of thesubject to produce a normalized cardiac output value.
 14. The systemaccording to claim 13, wherein the at least one automated processor isfurther configured to control a communication of the non-normalizedcardiac output value over a wireless communication link, furthercomprising a smartphone configured to receive the non-normalized cardiacoutput value through the wireless communication link, and to normalizethe non-normalized cardiac output value to produce the cardiac outputvalue normalized for the at least one body characteristic of thesubject.
 15. The system according to claim 2, wherein the at least oneautomated processor is further configured to determine at least one of:a variability of a cardiac stroke volume, and a variability of a cardiacoutput, based on at least the sensed chest wall movements.
 16. Thesystem according to claim 2, wherein the transducer is configured tosense the chest wall movements of the subject during breathing andphysical exertion, and the at least one automated processor is furtherconfigured to receive as inputs a height and a weight of the subject,either calculate or receive as an input a heart rate of the subject, andto calculate a cardiac output based on at least the height, weight, thecalculated cardiac stroke volume, and the heart rate.
 17. The systemaccording to claim 2, further comprising a housing configured to bewearable by a human, containing at least: the transducer configured tosense chest wall movements; a self-contained power source; and the atleast one automated processor, comprising a microcontroller powered bythe self-contained power source, the at least one automated processorbeing further configured to process the sensed chest wall movements on abeat-by-beat basis, to store the cardiac stroke volume estimate in thememory, and to communicate the stored cardiac stroke volume estimatethrough a communication port; wherein the communicated stored cardiacstroke volume estimate is adapted to be processed by a remote system tocalculate a cardiac output.
 18. The system according to claim 17,further comprising an acceleration sensor configured to determine anacceleration vector of the housing, the acceleration sensor beingdistinct from the transducer, the microcontroller being furtherconfigured to determine an artifact condition based on the accelerationvector.
 19. The system according to claim 2, further comprising anelectrocardiogram input configured to provide information fordetermining a heart contraction timing, the cardiac stroke volumeestimate being further calculated dependent on the determined a heartcontraction timing.
 20. The system according to claim 2, wherein: thewavelet transform comprises a plurality of different mother waveletwaveforms in a plurality of different decomposition paths, eachrespective decomposition path having a plurality of respective terms;the wavelet packet function applies respective parameters to respectiveterms of the wavelet transform; and the least one automated processor isfurther configured to: perform an iterative genetic algorithm foroptimizing the parameters of the wavelet packet function; convolve theplurality of different mother wavelet waveforms in the plurality ofdifferent decomposition paths with at least a portion of the calibrationdata; define at least one fitness criterion for the wavelet packetfunction dependent on the convolution; optimize the respectiveparameters, based on at least the iterative genetic algorithm and thedefined at least one fitness criterion; and store the optimizedrespective parameters in the memory.
 21. The system according to claim20, wherein the at least one automated processor is further configuredto together optimize the plurality of respective terms of the waveletpacket function and at least one respective parameter applied to arespective term, based on the at least an iterative genetic algorithmand the at least one fitness criterion.
 22. The system according toclaim 20, wherein: the at least one automated processor is furtherconfigured to: determine a correlation R² of the wavelet packet functionwith a reference at a respective stage of the iterative geneticalgorithm; and calculate the at least one respective parameter appliedto each respective term of the wavelet packet function, based on atleast the correlation R², wherein a precision of the correlation R² issufficiently limited in order to increase a rate of convergence of theiterative genetic algorithm.
 23. The system according to claim 20,wherein the at least one automated processor is further configured toperform the wavelet transform on the sensed chest wall movements toproduce a wavelet transform domain representation, and to apply thestored optimized at least one respective parameter to each respectiveterm of the wavelet packet function in the wavelet transform domainrepresentation.
 24. The system according to claim 2, wherein the atleast a cardiac stroke volume estimate is calculated further dependenton a chest circumference measurement of the subject.
 25. A system forcomputing cardiac performance, comprising: a memory configured to storeparameters of a wavelet packet function, the stored parameters beingbased on calibration data from a plurality of members of a humanpopulation relating chest wall movement data to at least cardiac strokevolume; a transducer configured to sense chest wall movement data from arespective human; a wavelet transform processor, configured to produce awavelet transform of the chest wall movement data of the respectivehuman; a cardiac stroke volume processor, configured to evaluate thewavelet packet function to at least estimate a cardiac stroke volume ofthe respective human based on the wavelet transform of the chest wallmovement data and the stored parameters of the wavelet packet function;and one of: (a) a display device configured to display the estimatedcardiac stroke volume; and (b) a therapeutic cardiac device configuredto deliver a therapy to the respective human selectively dependent onthe estimated cardiac stroke volume.